Leica Cameras - Extreme Durability

Leica Cameras derive their name from a shortening of "Leitz Camera". While on the staff at the Leitz Wetzlar Factory in 1911, Oskar Barnack set out to create a portable camera. The Wetzlar works dated back to 1849, founded by Carl Kellner, a mathematician and optician, for the purpose of developing lenses and microscopes.
Barnack had begun his career as an engineer at Carl Zeiss lens manufactory at Jena. He actually conceived of the Leica camera design as early as 1905, but for many years the design existed only in his brain. He made a 1914 photo with his ur-Leica, a compact predecessor with a retracting brass lens, that chronicled the coming of World War I. The picture depicts a German soldier posting an early mobilization order from Kaiser Wilhelm.
The result of his work formed the basis for the 35mm camera. Together with the highly-acclaimed lenses developed by Max Berek, the Ernst Leitz Company, located in the small German town of Solms (near Frankfurt), was able to bring the new Leica Camera to the commercial market in the form of the Leica I at a trade show at Leipzig.
When the Leica I was introduced, photographers were accustomed to lugging around suitcase-sized photography paraphernalia. The cameras enclosed used 13 inch by 16 inch plates, rather than the present-day 35mm film on rolls.

Because these portable cameras were so small and lightweight by current standards, Leica cameras were at first perceived as toys for a lady's purse. That first impression was soon dispelled when the public came to appreciate the stunning images the camera produced and their extreme durability.
Carl Wolff, who bought the company in 1926, is largely credited with expanding the fame of the Leica brand. Leica was also famous for high-quality binoculars, dating back to 1907. Leica camera sales totalled 90,000 by 1932, and a million by 1961.
These rugged cameras were witness to two world wars, often from both sides of the conflict. Not only the Americans, but also the Russians, were fond of the Leica in World War II. The Soviets viewed the Leica as a guilty pleasure, despite its capitalist "fascist" origins. Ironically, many of The Leica family were Jews.
Russian Aleksandr Rodchenko, also a sulptor and a painter, shot many memorable pictures, including the 1934 "Girl with a Leica". Fellow Russian, Ilya Ehrenburg, created a series of 1930's images that depict the raw underbelly of France between the World Wars.
In the 1930's, French painter Henri Cartier-Bresson migrated his art to photography. The means of his transformation was the Leica camera. His often candid black and white photos are among the finest in the illustrious Leica legacy.
The famous Times Square kiss on V-J Day was shot by Alfred Eisenstaedt on a Leica.
Photographers the world over have praised various Leica Cameras, such as the Leica I, Leica M3, Leica M3, and later the Leicaflex SL (its first SLR camera). Enthusiasts have made the brand a cult favorite, to the extent that a Leica Number 107 test market model from 1923 sold in 2007 for a world record price of nearly a half million dollars US.

Free Tips on Page Layout to Create Photo Books

If you’ve decided to create photo books, you might do well to think a little about page layout. Most likely your photo books are going to be combinations of words and photographs. You’re probably aware that some online photo gallery and storage sites offer you the opportunity to make photo books. These photo books are professionally printed and look like real books. Why not invest a little effort and make the page layout look like a real book too?
There are a few basic principles graphic designers use to lay out pages that you should be aware of. While there are no hard and fast rules to a creative discipline like graphic design, there are some principles that all graphic designers are thoroughly versed in, and in practice rarely, if ever, violate. These principles are simple, and don’t require the kind of visual talent you’d need to paint the Sistine chapel, by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, they don’t require as much talent as taking good pictures to understand and apply.

The first thing you need to think about when you are arranging things on a page—in this case, you’re arranging pictures and text to make a photo book—is how arrange the elements on the page. This includes thinking about what stuff goes on which page, and where to put it relative to the other elements. That is an important notion—the notion that things are placed relative to other elements. Graphic designers think not only about the elements they put on the page, they think about the arrangement in terms of what those elements, as shapes, do in terms of giving the page structure.
If you really want your pages to look aesthetically pleasing, you should think about the shapes that the elements make out of the empty space that remains on the page. This is called negative space, and your first priority is to make sure the pages of the photo book you are creating look organized. One way to do this is to think of the page in terms of a grid. The grid is never visible in the finished page, but think of your favorite newspaper. Think of how the columns, the photos and the headlines are arranged. Even though you don’t actually see the grid itself, you can look at the pages of this newspaper and know where the grid is, can’t you? A grid is a great way to organize pages, not just for beginners but for professional designers.
Are you planning on using text, either to tell a story or to caption your photographs when you create photo books? There are a couple of things to bear in mind. Firstly, color. As tempting as it is to use pretty colors on a prettily colored page for your text, if you want people to be able to read the text in your photo book, the color of the text and the color of the page need to be as different as possible. That’s why most books are black and white—it makes it easier to read.

Beginner Digital Scrapbooking - Pixels and Resolution

When opening a digital photograph on your computer, the displayed image appears in one of two ways. Sometimes the image will appear larger than your monitor can display. But most often the entire image is viewable because the software "scales down" or displays a smaller version automatically. The original image file still has not changed in any way.
Here is where it becomes confusing for anyone just beginning to do digital scrapbooking. Is my image too large? Is it too small? What should I do next?
Remember that pixel dimension (width x height) is stored as part of the digital image file. However, "pixel" not only refers to a point of light inside your stored digital photo. The same word is used to describe a point of light on your computer monitor. Many people are easily confused because the word pixel actually refers to two different technologies.

A monitor pixel is really made up of three subpixels in the colors red, green and blue. The number of pixels in your monitor depends upon your monitor hardware and your monitor resolution setting. Early computer monitors were limited to displaying at a single resolution only. Today monitors are capable of displaying multiple resolutions starting on the low end at 600x480 pixels and going up way past 1900x1200 pixels. If you don't know at what resolution your monitor is set, ask the nearest computer nerd in your household.
If your original picture was stored digitally with a dimension of 1900x1200 pixels, what happens to your picture when your monitor resolution is set to 800x600?
Nothing!
Image software will typically display either the whole image scaled down to fit the screen or will use a one to one mapping of image pixels to display pixels. When changing to a higher monitor resolution, pictures will appear smaller but the image file remains unchanged. A lower monitor resolution makes pictures look larger. Most people never change their monitor resolution once set to their own preference but may notice this effect when viewing the same image on another monitor with a different resolution.
The point is, the resolution of your computer monitor has absolutely no relation to the final size of the printed digital image.
Just as pixel is defined by two different technologies, so too is resolution.
As defined above, resolution refers to the number of horizontal and vertical pixels in a computer monitor. But resolution is also the degree of sharpness of a computer-generated image as measured by the number of dots per linear inch in a hard-copy printout. This is referred to as DPI or Dots Per Inch. Good quality output on any print device requires the DPI be set to 300.
The important thing to remember here is resolution. Why? Because that's how computer software labels this setting. The pixels/inch setting is controlled from the photo editing software image resize dialog. Look for the grey outlined section labeled Document Size or Print Size. There you will see the image settings: Width, Height, and Resolution. When the resolution is changed and saved with the modified image file, this information is communicated to the hard-copy printer.
The image resolution default is 72 pixels/inch, far below the print standard of 300. The resolution defaults to 72 because of standards that were set in the early days of computer monitors and are still followed today.
If you take your flash memory card directly to the local photo processing center without editing any of the photo image files, the photo centers know how to adjust for the discrepancy between 72 and 300 to give you the final printed product. All you have to do is select the size of your photo prints and they take care of all the rest.
However as a digital scrapbooker, you are now editing your photo digitally before printing and if you don't pay attention, the final printed image will turn out wrong. Avoid any print errors by making sure your digital layout with any photo images therein has a resolution set to 300.
There is one other usage of the word "resolution" when referring to digital cameras set to take pictures at a high pixel count. Many people refer to this setting as the resolution of the camera. The word "resolution" used in this way refers to the quality of the camera, as in the greater the resolution, the better the picture.
Is it any wonder why you were confused?
So let's wrap this up by reviewing each of the definitions explained above for pixel and resolution.
pixel
1. Short for picture element.
2. A single point of light stored in a photographic digital image file.
2. A point of light on your computer monitor made up of three subpixels: red, green and blue.
resolution
1. The number of pixels across and down on a video display screen or computer monitor.
2. The degree of sharpness of a computer-generated image as measured by the number of dots per linear inch (DPI) in a hard-copy printout.
3. The amount of pixel dimensions at which a digital camera can capture an image; the greater the resolution, the higher the pixel dimensions, the more data captured per picture.

Beginner Digital Scrapbooking - Digital Image

Get ready to learn digital imaging terms and the basic steps to get a digital image from a camera into a digital scrapbook layout.
Digital scrapbooking, sometimes called virtual scrapbooking, is so easy because the scrapbook page layout is created, simulated, or built by means of a computer. All the visual information that is built into the final digital layout is captured somewhere in digital memory as bits and bytes.
When a picture is taken, a digital camera stores all of the photographic information on a small computer memory chip known as a flash memory card. Digital cameras store digital images in JPEG format which uses data compression. More expensive cameras also use TIFF and RAW formats that use more storage space but give experienced photographers more options in processing the image.



Megapixels is a measure of how many millions of individual photon capturing elements are inside the digital camera sensor. The sensor replaces the film in a traditional camera, as each light element of a picture is translated into thousands of bits per picture or pixels.
Each digital camera has its own settings and firmware (software built into the camera) which determine how the digital picture is stored, that is, how many pixels are used per picture and in what format the pictured is saved. A digital camera set to capture images at the best quality possible will use more pixels per picture and therefore more data storage memory also. Cameras with greater megapixel capacity produce higher resolution photography.
A pixel is another computer term which is short for picture element. In a stored digital image file, a pixel refers to a single point of light in the photograph. In a digital camera that takes 1600x1200 pixel photos, each image contains 1,920,000 pixels or approximately 2 megapixels. Similarly, a 2560x1920 pixel photo stores 4,915,200 pixels or roughly 5 megapixels.
Digital cameras typically come with a cord to connect it directly to a computer. This allows the camera's ability to read the flash memory card to be used in conjunction with computer software.
Alternatively, the memory card can be removed from the camera and placed into a card reader already connected to a computer. Some computers come with internal card readers that have multiple slots for different memory card formats. For my SD memory card, I bought a cheap USB device that allows me to plug my flash memory card into my computer USB port.
Using either method above, you can now open digital image files from where they are stored on the flash memory card and save the files on your hard drive. The copied images on the hard drive becomes the original source for all future work done with these digital images. Once you are assured that you have successfully copied the images to the hard drive, the flash memory card can now be reused to take more photos.
I have a folder (or directory) on my hard drive called camera downloads. This is where I keep all of my original digital image files. When I want to do more work with a particular photo, I make yet another copy of the digital image file into a second folder which is my working directory. This ensures that I always have an original copy because I never want to alter or destroy the original in any way. This is like hanging on to the original negatives from processed film only now it is done in the computer--virtually. That's another plus for digital scrapbooking.
Most important to this entire process is to always make regular backups of all your personal data and digital images from your hard drive to another type of storage medium, be it CD, DVD, tape, online backups or a redundant hard drive.
So let's recap. We took a picture that was stored digitally in the camera's flash memory card. We connected the camera to the computer or we moved the memory card into the computer card reading device. Then we copied the picture from the memory card to the camera downloads folder on the computer hard drive. And for future processing, we made another copy of the picture into our working folder. Finally, we've made sure that all our original photos are being backed up on a regular basis to another storage medium.

Free Tips on Turning Photos Into Canvas Art

Canvas print photos are the in thing today. You can convert your old photos into digital quality prints on canvas to adorn your room and house. Canvas photo prints make an ideal gift for your loved ones or friends adding a personal touch. A photograph has lots of memories associated with it. They are special moments captured by the camera. Turning them into canvas print ensures that they remain with you for a lifetime.
There are many professional photographers and photo printing service companies that can turn your photos into masterpieces on canvas. Also, online photo effects software allows users to convert their photos into canvas print. The photos that are produced on canvas bear the same standard and quality as that of a hand made portrait. It is difficult to make out whether the canvas art piece on your wall is an oil painting or a photograph.
Transforming your old photograph to a brand new canvas print is not at all difficult. Following are the steps that you will need to go through on a website for ordering your prints.

Step #1 Select the photograph(s).
It is important to select the appropriate photograph for your canvas print. It is confusing as everybody is bound to have a vast collection of memorable photos, and you have to really zero in on that perfect shot.
There are numerous occasions preserved in your photographs like vacations, weddings, honeymoons, birthdays and Christmas to name a few. Some people also like to order canvas print photographs for the special members in their family like their pet dogs, cats, babies, kids, nephews and extended family members. You can choose a photograph that you would like to last long.
Step #2 Send an email in or upload your photograph(s)
Once you are done with selecting the photos to be turned into canvas prints, you can upload them on the photo printing website offering such services. It is a must that you have a digital copy of your photograph. Some websites also have the option of sending them through snail mail, if you have time on hand. The website may ask you to create a login id for yourself and you can store your photos online too in a digital format.
Step #3 Mention the size and other details.
After you have sent your photograph(s), the next step is to decide the size of your canvas print. You should take into consideration the various factors like where you are going to display it, the size of the wall and the room before finalizing upon a particular size. There are various options like gallery wrapped canvas prints or stretched prints and rolled canvas to choose from.
Step #4 Place the shipping order
The last step is to press the “order” button. Check out the mode of payment and other shipping details. Usually the canvas print artwork is completed in 4-5 days, so you can expect it latest in a week’s time.
Nothing can be compared to a personally owned photograph which has treasured memories associated with it. Turn it into a canvas print and see the magic! You can create a great gift or token of appreciation for people who really matter to you. Moreover, a canvas print can beautify your home and add a nostalgic touch to it.

Hugh Parker by canvas prints

Photo Gifts - Make your gifts Special, Unique and Heart touching.

A personalized gift will always hit the right note whether you are choosing to give it to a special person in your life. It will be sure that your picture gift will be assured to impress whoever receives it. Definitely there are a wide number of personalized photo gifts to choose from. These photos can translate into luxurious, warm, and cozy blankets or picture gift that doubles as home decoration, but you do desire a personalized photo gift throw pillow, you could also have a photo digitally painted onto a canvas which finally rolls to photo canvas gift. Photo gift products include a wide range of items such as aghans, pillows, tapestries, handbags, canvases, quilts, tapestry throws, custom throws, fabrics, cashmere blanket, fleece, acrylic throws, arrays and beach towels and many more photo gifts.

These are wonderful picture gifts can be unique and imaginative when you team up with a personalized photo gifts to put together a high quality work of art made especially for the one who is closer to your heart. If you would like to present special photo gifts that are both stylish and practical, consider gifting to a person at some occasion with photo tote bag as the right photo gift. Your special photos will be beautifully as well as artistically woven into stylish accessories that the individual who receives it will be able to carry everywhere by them, so that they will be continuously reminded of your thoughtfulness with their exclusive personalized photo gifts. You can choose a picture gift that includes the complete family. Whether you roll an existing photo into a photo gift throw or you have a photo taken specifically for the occasion, a personal throw is a great present that the person will be grateful for year after year. A memory throw is a grand picture gift.

A memory throw is not in fact something you throw; it is a picture gift curved into a great throw or photo gift blanket that assist you keep warm and also to commemorate or rejoice an amazingly extraordinary memory. They have the most excellent intentions but they do not know what would make actually a fine photo gift. So they can present these photo gifts which will definitely excite the person with the picture of the precious moment as photo gift for a life time and surely makes them glad and reaches closer to their heart.

The right photo gifts at the right occasion will be surely personalized gifts which give a unique and significance to your gift that last forever physically and always stay closer to the heart of person who receive it. Personalthrows.com specialize in making your personalized blankets, photo blanket Photo Gifts, Photo Throw, Photo Pillow, Picture blanket, Tapestry throws, Picture throw, Personalized throw Blanket, Photo Tapestry, Navy Throw, pillows, and bags. Personalized photo throws and pillows make great photo gifts with that extra personal touch.

Marine Art - Eternal beauty for Home decor

If you desire to hand amazing paintings on your home walls or if you are looking for ideal gift then marine art is the answer. Marine paintings are considered as a timeless representation, which are capable to make a difference in every home décor. Any such painting could as well be rich in dear meaning and you must purchase such a gift particularly if you have bought a new property. However, you need to be very careful when selecting a particular marine art. Buying such art paintings could be the perfect selection if you are hunting for an idea gift too. Such arts are made to express your gratitude and affection without being actually obvious.
In fact, paintings are eternal beauty and you must think of this when locating for the wonderful gift.

You require doing no much further as you can go with the online provider, which has everything you require ordering to buy the suitable marine painting, which would make the party’s day. On the other hand, if you are desire to have your own panels’ painting then you would need to learn how to manage it. Managing and handling the marine art painting could be quite tricky if you don’t pay adequate attention.

Truly, such a painting must be managed with immense care and as minute as you could. Meaning, you would have to ensure that your hands are fresh; you should wash your hands before touching the marine paining so as to guard its colors and construction. Your hands must as well be free of creams or any grease in turn not to change the actual painting. You should not lift your painting with just bare fingers; you should further not touch the surface as well of the painting. As a result, you must make use of cloves so as to defend the tissue of the art. In addition, colors are to be secluded and you might do this by using special gloves available in market. You must as well defend your paintings from straight sunlight; the paintings are capable of fading out particularly if they are uncovered to direct and sturdy sunlight.
The marine paintings are very useful for various home decorative purposes; they could in fact be used as a well-built reminder of particular occasions or friends. For example, the art painting could stand for the appreciation of having a stunning job. Therefore, you could also consider the marine painting as the ideal gift for your boss or to any of your beloved.

Photo Collage For a VisionBedding Photo Product

With the right tools and a little helpful advice, the possibilities are endless when it comes to designing the perfect VisionBedding photo product. Anything you can create on your computer screen can be put onto a photo product, through a special dye process. You'll see 3 easy ways to create 3 unique and very creative collage options. Each one you can do yourself using as many pictures, words, and colors as you want and the result is a beautiful gift and display of treasured memories.
Tools and Skills Needed to Begin
To begin your masterpiece, there are some simple tools and skills that are needed for creating your unique design. You will need some kind of photo editing program, this can range from a complex program like Adobe Photoshop or Corel Photo to a simpler program such as Gimp (this is a free downloadable program, that is very safe and easy-to-use). If you do not have a photo editing program already, Gimp is a good tool to use and can be downloaded by going to www.gimp.org. You will want to become familiar with the program, especially the cropping tool, text tool, paint bucket tool, and selection or hand tool (used to move pictures and text around on the page). The main advantage to these programs is the function of having separate layers. This means that each picture and text box can be moved around freely without affecting the pictures and words that are around it, and it remains a separate entity the entire time you're working on your design.
A few other things you will want to become familiar with are changing the image size (of your pictures), the selection tool, and opening and dragging layers from one canvas to another. These are very basic and simple things to learn and can usually be figured out by practicing and becoming familiar with the program, or by reading about the program online. Now that you have the basic idea of what you will be doing, keep in mind that in order for your product to be clear and good quality, your design must be clear. This means that you will want to start with a canvas size of:
1. 6"x6" at 300 DPI (DPI is dots per inch and refers to the resolution) for a photo throw pillow
2. 4.5"x7" at 300 DPI for the Pillow Sham
3. 9"x12" at 300 DPI for a Small photo blanket (the 30"x40" Photo Blanket)
4. 10"x12" at 300 DPI for a Medium (50"x60" Photo Blanket) and Large (60"x72" Photo Blanket)
Collage Type #1 - Pictures on a Show-Through Background
The first collage option we'll look at is the multiple picture layout, on a show through background. This means that the pictures will be spread out, and a background color will show through giving it a bordered or framed effect. To begin, pick the background color of your choice and use the paint bucket tool to fill it in (you will always be able to change it later and if you are unsure you can just make it white). Resize your pictures so they are proportional to the size of the product and drag them onto you canvas. Continue to move them around until you are satisfied with the layout, this may mean you have to crop pictures more or less. Once you have your layout decided, go ahead and add in any text such as important dates, names, quotes or messages. Don't forget you can change the color of your text and add an outline or drop shadow to give it a 3D effect. Once you have finished your collage, save your image as a jpeg (picture file) in a folder or on the desktop where you will be able to find it later.
TIPS-

1. If you need extra pictures to fill in a space, try using a duplicate picture but cropping it differently.
2. Adding drop shadows to the pictures can make your pictures take up more space and also give it a 3D raised effect.
3. If you cannot decide on a single background color, try using a gradient background or adding a border around the edge of the blanket.
4. Sometimes black, white, or shades of grey work best for the background color, if your pictures are very colorful. This will allow the pictures and their color to stand out more and really bring out their vibrant colors.
Collage Type #2 - A Solid Block of Pictures
The second type of collage layout that is very popular is where each picture touches another picture. There are no gaps or background color. However, it can be tricky to make this layout with a set number of pictures, so you may want to have extra pictures just in case or be willing to duplicate some pictures. The best way to begin this layout is to have a main picture that you want as the focal point that is bigger than the others or directly in the center of the product. You will want to utilize the grids in your photo editing program. Try to stick with even numbers when cropping your pictures such as 3"x5" or 4"x6", etc. This will help you get pictures to line up correctly and since pictures are taken in these dimensions already, you won't have to cut anyone out of a picture when you crop it. Once you have the entire top of the product filled up with pictures, save your final design as a jpeg in a file or folder where you can easily locate it.
TIPS
1. Always measure the space you have to fill up before you crop your photos. This will help everything to line up better and makes it much easier.
2. Try grouping pictures together to make squares. Squares are much easier to work with than rectangles. (see diagram for example)
3. For this type of layout, make sure that the automatic select is turned on. This means when you click on a picture it will automatically go to that layer so you can move it around. It will save you time of trying to search through your layers to find the right picture, just so you can move it a few inches.
Collage Type #3 - Picture Cut-Outs on Background
The third type of collage layout is cutting out pictures in different shapes such as hearts, stars, ovals, etc. It is not as difficult as it may sound. To begin open your pictures in your photo editing program. Use the selection tool to either draw a shape onto the picture or use a preset shape, heart, star, or oval, to select the part of the picture that you want to see on the blanket. Then drag the selected part of your picture onto your product canvas. You can change the backing color by using the paint bucket or gradient tool on the bottom (or background) layer. You can add shapes, multiple borders, and anything else you can think of to make your product a work of art.
TIPS
1. Certain shapes can be difficult to cut out, especially hearts and stars. To save some trouble, you may want to cut out the picture in a circle or oval shape and then put it on a heart or star shape.
2. This type of layout offers complete freedom when it comes creating your background. Experimenting with different effects (filters) can unleash some really cool designs and also help you become more familiar with your design / photo editing program.
3. Watch about resizing your image by dragging and pulling it to make it larger, this can result in poor quality pictures. It's always better to use your "image size" tool since it will retain quality and simply shrink and enlarge the pixel size.
I've Completed My Design. . .

What Next?
After you have finished your product design, make sure you save it as a jpeg (picture file) in a safe place - where you can access it easily (your desktop or personal folder). Then you can make your purchase through our safe and secure online checkout process if you haven't already done so, and once the checkout is complete log back in to your VisionBedding Account. There you will be able to upload you entire design as the 1 image layout. After uploading you may do any further cropping and choose your backing color from 13 different color options. You will be able to preview your final design and then click complete to submit your design to be put on your one-of-a-kind photo product.