Technology Explained, Practice
Daniela Bowker
Resolution and pixels and image quality! Oh my! ...

When you hear the term 'high-res' thrown about with such abandon when it comes to images for web use, have you ever stopped to think just how big or how high quality and image meant for the web needs to be?

Resolution and pixels and image quality! Oh my! Saving images for the web
Feature Articles, Photography Theory
Haje Jan Kamps
Low-contrast photographs don't have to be boring

There's an assumption that high-contrast images are more dynamic, more compelling, more inviting. Have a go at some low-contrast photography. You might surprise yourself with the results.

Low-contrast photographs don't have to be boring
Feature Articles, Theory
Daniela Bowker
Seeking balance in your photos

Balance doesn't mean symmetry; it means an internal consistency and tension within your photos. And it's a vital element of composition. 

Seeking balance in your photos
Feature Articles, Photography Theory
Haje Jan Kamps
Training your photographic luck

Great photos might be down to a little bit of luck, but most of that 'luck' you make yourself. Don't believe us? Read on...

Training your photographic luck
Feature Articles, Practice
Daniela Bowker
The ups and downs and ins and outs of ...

Photographing buildings doesn't have to mean wide-angle lenses and fretting about correcting for the keystone effect. Any lens, and angle. Don't believe us? Let us show you!

The ups and downs and ins and outs of photographing buildings

three months

Two exciting opportunities for young photographers from IdeasTap

The lovely people over at IdeasTap, a not-for-profit organisation that's in the business of giving young creative people a leg-up in their chosen field, has just announced two new projects that might be right up some young photographers' streets.

First up is a Bauhaus-inspired project. The Barbican in London will be hosting the Bauhaus: Art as Life exhibition from May this year, and they're looking for Bauhaus-inspired images to be turned into paper-based products, such as greetings cards and posters, for sale in the gift shop.

If you're UK-based and aged between 16 and 30 you can submit six images - all Bauhaus-inspired - to be considered for production by the panel of judges. The deadline is 17:00 on 16 February. More details are available on the IdeasTap website.

Next up is the opportunity to curate your very own anthology - a collection of whatever words and pictures that you feel deserve to see the light of day in a creative and inspiring way. Of course, they judges will be looking for something that's original and unusual. So this is a chance to let yourselves shine.

The deadline for this is much tighter - it's Wednesday 11 January - and you need to put together a brief for your idea with an editorial team of three people by then. If you're successful, you'll be given three months, professional mentoring, and £2,000 to make your idea into a pdf production.

Does this float your boat? Super! You and your editorial team need to be aged between 16 and 25. All the information is available here.

All new photos.com

Screen shot 2011-01-11 at 18.36.39

Getty Images launched a brand new version of photos.com today. It might’ve been going since 2003, but the big bosses decided that it needed a bit of an overhaul. There are now 2.5 million royalty-free images available for download on the site. So that’s just a few, then.

The target market is very much small businesses and individuals, and it caters to those who might need to lay their hands on an image in a hurry and not have to sell a kidney to pay for it. You can pay to download a single image, or a bundle of five, 10, 25, or 50 images over the course of a year. The larger the bundle, the cheaper each image. (A single image for print purposes costs £4.99, whereas one image works out at £1.80 if you buy a bundle of 50. The US equivalents are $7.99 and $2.70.)

Or there’s a subscription plan. Pay £649 (US$988) and be able to download 100 images every week for a year; £199 (US$299) covers three months and it’s £369 (US$549) for six months. The plans are tailored to a whole heap of different countries, too.

I can see this being heaven-sent for students completing their dissertations or small businesses looking for imagery to put in their marketing literature. Yeah, I had a poke about, which is ludicrously easy, and they had some suitably obscure pictures as well as less brain-wrackingly odd ones, from autoclaves to the Eiffel Tower.

All over at Photos.com