Digital Photography Resource Thread

[blurredvision]

This thread is intended to be a resource for users of any skill level. I implore anyone with additional information to please provide that here in the thread or send to me in a PM, so I may add it to the list.

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Picture Hosting/Galleries

• Gallery Picture Hosting
  • SmugMug - Subscription model.
  • SquareSpace - Subscription model.
  • 500px - Free (limited) and subscription models.
  • ShootProof - Free and subscription models.
  • pBase - Subscription model.
  • Phanfare - Subscription model.
  • FotoMerchant - Subscription model.
  • Flickr - Free and subscription models.
  • Zenfolio - Subscription model.
  • Photobucket - Free and subscription model.
  • Deviant Art - Free.
• Quick Picture Hosting
  • pics.bbzzdd.com - Free.
  • Imageshack - Free.
  • Apartment 808 - Free.
  • Imgur - Free.

There are plenty more, so thanks for the additions that you guys can give so I may add them to the list. Please note that many of the subscription-based sites do offer, at minimum, a 7-day trial. Be sure to compare allotted storage space, but just as important, allowed bandwidth per month. Also, some sites like Photobucket impose a pixel limit to uploaded pictures, making their free and pay service less enticing than others.

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Photography How-To's, Tips, and Tricks

• Intro/Beginner
  • Simple Guide to Photography - A quick infographic for beginners.
  • The Complete Guide to Photography For Beginners. - Another infographic.
  • 27 Photography Cheat Sheets/Infographics
  • 20+ Cheat Sheets/Infographics
  • Photo.net - Digital Photography Beginner's Guide - A basic starting guide.
  • tuts+ - How your camera works. - Explanations on shutter, aperture, etc.
  • Photoxels.com - What is aperture? - Aperture "tutorial".
  • Digital Photography School - Tips for beginners.
  • CuriousMike's DSLR Beginner Tips - Anandtech Member advice.
• General
  • Stanford Photography Course - FREE...Stanford's entire photography course online.
  • Real Estate Photography Tips
  • Digital Photography School - A lot of good tips and tricks.
  • Photosecrets.com Tips - General tips covering different topics.
  • The Digital Pictures Tips - A small sampling of tips covering a wide-range of subjects.
  • Online Digital Photography FAQ - A sizable FAQ for beginners and a great resource for many different topics.
  • DIYPhotography.net - Self explanatory site.
• Lighting
  • Strobist - How to Light - Home to the infamous "Lighting 101" for absolute beginners.
  • tuts+ - An introduction to using strobes.
• Topic Specific
  • Benji's 40 Rules of Good Portraiture - Fantastic set of rules/suggestions for good portraiture photography.
  • Focus Testing

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Video Training

• CreativeLive - Fee-based video training. Topics cover almost everything in photography from basic fundamentals to lighting and posing to post-processing to creating your own photography business.
• KelbyOne - Fee-based video training, same topics of coverage as CreativeLive.
• Tony & Chelsea Northrup - YouTube Channel
• Phlearn - Fee-based Photoshop and Lightroom tutorials.
• Phlearn YouTube - YouTube Channel
• Jason Lanier - YouTube Channel
• The Art of Photography - YouTube Channel
• Steve Perry - YouTube Channel, accomplished wildlife photographer
• Mike Browne - YouTube Channel
• Matt Granger - YouTube Channel
• Jared Polin/Fro Knows Photo - YouTube Channel

These video links are currently what I am aware of and watch. Please provide more sources if your favorite online photography training website or vlog is not listed.
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Photography Definitions and Online Resource

• Crop Factor
• Depth of Field Calculator
• Front/Back Focusing Test

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Equipment Reviews and Info

• dpreview - Digital Photography Review - An extensive list of in-depth reviews for digital cameras and lenses over the past few years.
• Fred Miranda Lens and Camera Reviews - Considered by some to be the one-stop shop for lens reviews on the internet.
• Ken Rockwell - A community-respected site with great info.
• Photozone Lens Reviews
• Photo.net's Equipment Guide
• nikonians.org - A huge resource for Nikon users (partially subscription-based).
• By Thom - An admired source of information and reviews for Nikon equipment. Also considered by many to produce the best Nikon user guides around (for a price).
• Photography in Malaysia - What looks to be a wealth of historic info for SLR's.
• 2filter.com - A good site for reviewing filters.
• dyxum.com - A site for Sony Alpha mount users to read reviews on A mount lenses. From Minolta to Sony to Sigma to etc.

• Pbase Body/Lens Picture Search - One of my most favorite sites when looking at a lens. This search engine will allow you to sort the entire Pbase user gallery for pictures taken with specific lenses and bodies. An invaluable tool for comparing lenses.

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Trusted Photography Equipment Sales

• www.adorama.com
• B&H Photo and Video
• www.beachcamera.com
• Alkit
• Freestyle Photo
• Copper Hill Images - Recommended by Dartworth for sensor cleaning kits.

• Reseller Ratings - Regardless of which website you decide to purchase your photography equipment from, it's very important that you research your vendor before spending hundreds of dollars on equipment. Reseller ratings should ALWAYS be checked before ordering.

Please note that these sites are recommended by various members of this forum. You should always check the reseller ratings of any store you purchase from for the first time, regardless of recommendations, and make your own decision on whether to purchase from them.

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Online Printing Services

• General Use
  • Mpix - Considered by many the best.
  • Shutterfly
  • Color Enlargement
  • Perfect Posters - Huge prints for cheap.
  • El-Co Color Labs, Inc.
  • Winkflash
• Professional Quality Use
  • White House Custom Colour
  • West Coast Imaging
• Photo Book Printing
  • MyPublisher
  • Asuka Book
  • Blurb

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Software Editing, Post-Processing, and Batch Conversion

• Free
  • Irfanview - Excellent batch converter and overall file viewer.
  • Google Photos - Replaced the now-retired Picasa program.
  • The GIMP - 100% free, open-source "Photoshopesque" program.
  • Darktable
• Retail Products
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Lightroom
  • Apple Aperture
  • Nikon Capture NX
  • Capture One Pro
  • DxO Optics Pro
  • Google Nik Collection - Now FREE! No reason not to try this program.

• Odin's Photoshop Tutorials - Longtime member Odin shares his self-made Photoshop tutorials. Definitely worth a look.
• Microsoft Camera Codec Pack - The Microsoft Camera Codec Pack enables the viewing of a variety of device-specific file formats. See link for complete list. This file is continually updated with newer cameras.

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Professional Photography Resources

• Model Mayhem - Casual resource for networking with models, MUA's, stylists, etc.
• Models.com - Geared towards agency and professional work.
• Model Wire - Casting and booking for agencies and professionals.
• Newmodels.com - A resource for model wannabe's.

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If any info needs to be updated or added, please send me a PM. I will update immediately.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Decent introductory tips for photography in general (nothing terribly in depth, but a good site for a beginner to pick up some of the basic rules of thumb): Photosecrets.com

Photo.net's Basic Beginner's Guide to Digital Photography

The Equipment section of photo.net also has some useful information under the "Digital" heading.

All are good places to start from.

ZV

 

[Patt]

What about DPReview or other sites such as.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Patt
What about DPReview or other sites such as.

More gear-centered than photography-centered. A good site for information about equipment, but rather scanty on practical information regarding composition and exposure.

ZV

 

[episodic]

Picture hosting for albums -

Flickr
Zenfolio

DpReview's true strength lies in their forum - you can find TONS of information there.

 

[drifter106]

dpreview

POTN.

Fred Miranda

Luminus Lanscape

the-digital-picture

photozone

photonotes.org

photo.net


for the good of the community...

 

[Anubis]

http://www.iphotoforum.com/
one of teh largest photo forums on the net, tons of stuff on here

http://www.nikonians.org/
Have a question about something Nikon, Look no forther

 

[Anubis]

Another Photo Reviewer and industry person works alot with Nikon stuff,
http://www.bythom.com/index.htm

Reliable Places to buy photo stuff from

http://www.adorama.com/
http://www.alkit.com/
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/
http://www.freestylephoto.biz/e_main.php

Looking for something Used KEH is your place
http://www.keh.com/onlinestore/home.aspx

Online Photo Printing places

General Use

http://www.colorenlargement.com/
http://www.perfectposters.com/ - Prints HUGE for Cheap
http://www.elcocolor.com/
http://www.mpix.com/

Professional Quality

http://www.whcc.com/
http://www.calypsoinc.com/

 

[ZOXXO]

Photography In Malaysia - a cluttered old style site with a wealth of information.

 

[blurredvision]

Alright guys, I update the OP a little bit. Anubis, I got to your posts, and I decided to take a break to fix supper . I've been taking bits and pieces out of everyone links and posting what I think looks good and helpful. I've refrained thus far from posting links to other forums, as it seems a bit anti-community here .

I'll update more tonight.

 

[AmigaMan]

For pic hosting, http://www.phanfare.com is pretty good since it allows videos as well as pictures. It's a for-pay site, but if you need more than what PicasaWeb and Flickr offer for free, then it compete very well with them on the pay-side. For $55/year (about 4.50/month) you get no limits on bandwidth and no limits on the number of pictures or videos you want to host. There are filesize limits though, but they're pretty big. PicasaWeb has limits on storage and Flickr has limits on bandwidth and neither offers support for video.

 

[drifter106]

Originally posted by: AmigaMan
For pic hosting, http://www.phanfare.com is pretty good since it allows videos as well as pictures. It's a for-pay site, but if you need more than what PicasaWeb and Flickr offer for free, then it compete very well with them on the pay-side. For $55/year (about 4.50/month) you get no limits on bandwidth and no limits on the number of pictures or videos you want to host. There are filesize limits though, but they're pretty big. PicasaWeb has limits on storage and Flickr has limits on bandwidth and neither offers support for video.

Just reordered pbase this month... but will definitely have to look into this for I shoot video too. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[virtuamike]

http://www.modelmayhem.com
- good casual resource for networking with models, MUAs, stylists, other photographers, etc.

http://www.models.com
- another model site, geared more towards agency/professional work

http://www.modelwire.com
- castings and bookings if you need to go the agency/professional route

http://www.newmodels.com
- how modeling works and where we photographers fit in

http://www.duroi.com/fashionforum
- fashion photography/industry forum

 

[blurredvision]

Wow, what an awesome list of resources already. As of right now, the OP is updated with all the info I thought credible to what we were doing here. Thanks a lot guys, and I'll update as needed.

 

[Anubis]

IDK if these still work but i had it bookmarked, its a site that has a bunch of free photoshop actions to download
http://www.atncentral.com/download.htm

 

[drifter106]

Wikivid

This site provides video tutorials for software. Not the nuts and bolts to photography but it is safe to assume that well all have some type of software that we use with our digital photography.

Josh, I have other sites but they may not meet your standards. Maybe as time passes we could explorer those avenues. My way of thinking...if its a legitimate site and affords people an opportunity to learn why not share it. Isn't that one of the reasons why we are here? I know if I would not have found anandtech I would not know what I know now about computers. Whatever works out, so be it...just want to see this thing get off on the right foot and grow.

 

[GTaudiophile]

For the pixel-peepers who want to test their new lens for front or back focusing problems, there is this little tutorial. Take it with a grain of salt:

http://focustestchart.com/chart.html

Depth of Field Calculator:

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Lots of info on CCD/CMOS sensor cleaning:

http://www.pbase.com/copperhill/ccd_cleaning

PTLens, an essential (free) tool for PhotoShop:

http://www.epaperpress.com/ptlens/

Noise Ninja, also essential but not free:

http://www.picturecode.com/

Canon Digital Learning Center:

http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=HomePageAct

The Online Digital FAQ:

http://www.cs.duke.edu/~parr/photography/faq.html

Another site / forum I highly recommend for Canon users:

http://photography-on-the.net

 

[drifter106]

Photonotes


PhotoNotes.org is a free public information resource for the Internet photographic community


Lookup is a real handy device...

 

[GTaudiophile]

Here is another focus test link, probably better than the one above:

http://photo.net/learn/focustest/

 

[Anubis]

we need this stickied

 

[blurredvision]

I'll occassionally move stuff around and maybe fit things into better categories as time goes on. I also plan on adding some of the links for the Photoshop actions, plug-ins, and video tutorials, but I haven't thought about how it should be formatted into the chart, so I'll get to them.

Thanks for the sticky mods, hopefully this wealth of info will be good for people.

 

[Demo24]

I've found this site helpful at times

Digital Photography School

and this site has some interesting ideas and projects

Diy photography

 

[drifter106]

Beginners guide to understanding your camera and the mechanics of photography


Very good for the beginner and intermediate photographer. Uses photographs to walk you through different concepts.

This site works for all CAMERAS!!!

 

[GTaudiophile]

It always seems hard for me to explain crop factor to novices.

I suggest people wanting to know the difference between APS-C and Full-Frame camera bodies read this article on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_factor

 

[Mrvile]

You forgot this site in your reviews list:

Photozone lens reviews