How to make great photo collections? How to make slideshows of photos and music Try taking pictures while leaning out of a car window.

Not so long ago, one problem took us by surprise: we were preparing an article for Spark, and everything was fine with the article itself, but we could not find a picture for the article. We were looking for a stylish yet neutral image. And at the same time, the photo should at least slightly convey the meaning and atmosphere of the article.

Many people are probably familiar with this situation, when it is very urgent to find stylish and unfamiliar images: for an article, banner, postcard, website design, blog or group in in social networks etc. Inviting a photographer, models and taking photos specifically for a project is not something everyone can afford and can afford. It's even more time consuming than expensive. And the picture for the article is needed right now. How to be? Help out here photo stocks and banks of author's photos.

And while we were digging through the Internet in search of a stylish-neutral-tech photo, there were several services that will be useful to you. Bookmark so you don't lose it!

www.firestock.ru

One of my favorite services. A large number of categories where you can find an image for almost any purpose. People, children, food, landscapes, technology and more. Photos and pictures are made in different styles and with different emotional background.

en.freepik.com

One of the most popular services for designers. A large bank of vector and PSD files that can be modified to fit your needs. Tons of postcards for any occasion. There are collections for compiling infographics:

getrefe.tumblr.com

Great photos that are categorized. There are not so many groups, but the photos in them are of high quality and are suitable for website design.

unrestrictedstock.com

On this photostock, as well as on Freepic, you can find vector graphics. Some icons are constantly needed, and you can find them on this resource. Plus photos of cities, animals, nature.

nos.twnsnd.co

The photos on this resource are old. Vintage images will give a unique style to the publication. But the use of images is only possible for personal and non-commercial purposes.

www.rgbstock.com

The resource offers thousands of photos divided into thematic groups. You can download a picture only after registration.

foter.com

A huge database of images on any topic - more than 200 million photos. It is convenient that you can select the desired image size in pixels and download it.

unsplash.com

Resource with very calm and crazy beautiful photos. Image quality is excellent. Clicking on a photo will open it in a larger size. If you need a large neutral photo - you are here.

www.designerspics.com

A lot of photos on various topics. One of the popular and large categories is business. The photos are quite calm, usually the focus is on interior items, food, people's hands.

picjumbo.com

Stylish and free images for a website or blog. There is a curious tool - when you hover over a photo, an icon appears - “Photo Test Drive”. You can see how the image looks when it is used in various ways, for example, as a background for a website page.

jaymantri.com

This resource has a lot of photos of nature, urban landscapes. Many images are perfect for the background of the site - calm, soft, but spectacular photos.

www.splitshire.com

Author's photos by Daniel Nanesk. You can freely use the photo for commercial purposes. It is convenient that the photo, when clicked, expands into a large one and you can immediately evaluate how it will look like as a background for the site page. Example:

www.gratisography.com

Lots of photos by Ryan McGuire. Photos are unusual, non-standard and very emotional. Often met them in announcements for articles in popular blogs.

www.lifeofpix.com

The style of the photos is similar to jaymantri - high-quality and calm images for the background of the site.

These resources are more than enough to provide the site with high-quality images, no matter what the subject matter is. The nice thing is that these services are free and at most require registration.

Cole Rise is a popular photographer, traveler, and creator of the Rise preset for Instagram. His photographs are distinguished by the fact that even after processing they look natural. Cole shared his secrets on how to shoot on mobile phone and edit photos so that they are close in quality to pictures from SLR cameras.

1. Add light to the shadows and darken the highlights

Most photo editing tools have options for adjusting highlights and shadows. And this should be used.

To improve the nature photograph, Cole balanced the exposure by brightening up the shadows and darkening the highlights a bit. He also applied the Winsy filter from the Litely application collection to the photo to bring warm tones to the image.

2. Add a vignette effect and drop shadow to make your photo brighter

The vignetting effect adds a dark border around the perimeter of the photo and lightens the middle of the photo. This is one of Cole's favorite tricks. The original photo would have been too dark, so Cole increased the saturation and added some sharpening to separate Balloon from the landscape. This made it possible to keep the photo natural.

3. Edit the image and then reset all settings back to 50%

It is very important.

The trick is to make your photo look natural. Edit the image as you normally would and then reset all settings back to 50%.

Last year, Instagram users finally got the ability to control the power of filters. To use these settings, simply select a filter and then click on it again.

And one more tip: don't use the LUX tool on Instagram. Its job is to correct the lack of contrast that makes a photo look unnatural.

4. Photograph people wherever possible

Landscapes look best when there are people in them. The person in the photo is able to convey feelings. best example Another way people add personality to a picture is the work of Murad Osmann, who photographs himself holding his girlfriend's hand around the world (follow me photo series).

These are ruins ancient city Jerash. If we remove a person from this photo, then we will not feel the scale and grandeur of this structure.

6. Try taking pictures while leaning out of a car window

You will never know in advance what you will succeed. In the case of the iPhone, simply hold the shutter button and hold to take photos in burst mode. On a smartphone running Android, you can enable burst shooting by selecting the appropriate mode (Burst Mode) in the camera settings. On Samsung smartphones, it may be called Burst Shot. For this photo, Cole used a Slow Shutter Cam to add a blur effect.

7. To get an interesting shot, place your smartphone on the roof of the car

If there are clouds in the sky, then their reflection on the roof of the car will add some zest to the photo.

8. Lower your gadget to the surface of the water for a cool reflective effect

9. Hold your smartphone upright when shooting for Instagram

To make it easier for yourself, hold the camera vertically: it's easier to fit everything you need for the frame into a square area. Better yet, set your camera to shoot only square images right away.

10. When shooting landscapes, press the volume button to release the shutter

Did you know that you can simply open your iPhone's camera and press the volume button to take a photo? The same is true for Android phones. V samsung galaxy S4 Assign the shutter function to the volume button in settings instead of the default zoom function. This reshuffle of the buttons will make it easier to take the phone to avoid the effect of "shaking hands" that can ruin the photo.

11. Get closer to the ground if you want to bring your subject to the fore.

Smartphone cameras have poor depth of field, so you can resort to tricks. For example, lower the camera closer to the ground.

12. Do not attract attention and do not carry a backpack with you.

A tourist, hung with gadgets, is a great bait for thieves. When traveling, Cole never wears flashy clothes, keeps his camera and phone close to him, and always leaves his backpack at home. Before filming a merchant or just a person on the street, be sure to ask his permission. You will be surprised how responsive people are.

13. Bad weather = great photo

Don't run away when it starts to rain or hail. These are excellent conditions for taking a good picture. Overcast and cloudy days are an opportunity to capture interesting patterns in the sky. Do not sit at home even when the weather seems non-flying.

14. Be ready to shoot even in the most unexpected moments.

It is not always possible to thoroughly prepare for shooting, and unexpected moments happen. Like, for example, this shot with a low-flying plane. Therefore, if you do not want to miss great shots, learn the hot keys of your phone. For example, Samsung smartphones have a Camera Quick Access option in the settings. And the new Galaxy S6 has built-in hotkeys, you just need to double-tap the Home button.

15. To get the best shots, go further than others.

The only way to discover beautiful places is to force yourself to explore. Do you want to get non-standard shots? Move away from crowded tourist areas.

In general, as Cole says, live a bright life, then great photos will appear themselves.

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The main commandment of smartphoneography: no matter how cool the camera is, it is important who has it in their hands. And on the most luxurious DSLR you can take clear, but boring photos. Those that lie on the disk and no one opens them for years.

And you can take interesting photos on your smartphone, especially since this technique is always with you, you don’t need to uncover it for a long time and you won’t forget to remove the cap from the lens. And for the most part, smartphones are cheaper than DSLRs, which is also very pleasing.

site I've put together a few tips for you on how to take great photos with your smartphone.

Programs

© (c) iphonegrapher_hiro

A camera in a smartphone is, first of all, a program that maintains a lens and a matrix. Therefore, you should not dwell on what Android or iOS dictates to you. You may want to use different programs for different shooting situations. Some give more interesting color reproduction, others give slightly larger shots: Pudding Camera, CameraMX, Photosynth, VSCO Cam, Slow shutter cam, Pro HDR, Camera+, etc. Why limit yourself when you have a choice?

Having chosen the program, it is worth delving into the settings. Set high resolution pictures, remember that in difficult cases you can play with white balance, ISO and turn off autofocus. And in general, to find out what a particular program can create interesting things.

zoom

Crop as a substitute for zoom.

The fact that the smartphone has a digital zoom, it is better to forget once and for all. Such an increase in most cases is achieved by serious losses in image quality. The best zoom is legs: get closer, move further.

If this is not possible, then it is more reasonable in the post-processing process to cut out the frame you need from a large photo. The crop function is even in the most simple programs. Plus, you don’t waste time adjusting the size, but just shoot. And already in a calm environment, you competently build a frame, not missing details that you could accidentally cut off, wielding zoom in the field.

Series

Take multiple shots of the same scene. Subsequently, you can choose the most successful picture and work with it. And, before deleting photos from your smartphone, it will not be superfluous to view them on a computer, since on the small screen of the phone you may not notice nice photos only because they appear overexposed or underexposed.

If it doesn’t turn out interesting, it’s worth changing the shooting angle.

When photographing something or someone, don't be afraid to change angles. You can take a picture head-on, or you can slightly change the angle and get an interesting shot. Moreover, the compact size of the smartphone allows you to take angles for which a photographer with a large camera will have to sweat a lot.

Light

Flash on a smartphone should be used very carefully. As a rule, it "deads" the photo, distorts colors and shadows. Flash is good only when you need to take pictures immediately, otherwise you will miss the moment.

At the same time, light is the main tool of the photographer. This is important for professional cameras, but for smartphones it is much more important. Therefore, always look for light, look at how it falls on the object, and you will have a frame.

Good light in the morning and evening. On a sunny afternoon, you will have to work with too high a contrast, which threatens with artifacts in the pictures. Luxurious effects are given by a pre-stormy sky.

Object shooting

On the left is a picture with a lack of lighting, on the right - with a flashlight.

If you want to take a picture of something or someone at home, the smartphone can become stubborn - there is rarely enough light in the room. But you can take a simple led flashlight and a piece of white paper to compensate for the shadow being too harsh. Let's say a flashlight shines from the top right, on the left we bring a sheet of white paper that reflects the light of the flashlight and additionally highlights the object, and press the button on the phone.

Lens Cleanliness

Frame through fingerprint.

It would seem that the obvious thing is the purity of the lens, but smartphone lovers often come across it. The phone is used constantly, lies in your pocket, and when you take it to answer a call or SMS, the last thing you remember is that you left a fingerprint on the lens glass. When shooting, this print gives, of course, a slight mysterious blur, but, as a rule, you do not expect this effect in the intended picture.

Trip delay

It is important to take into account the fact that the shooting program in the smartphone in most cases works with a delay. You have already pressed the button, but the camera is still thinking before taking the picture. Therefore, it is important to think proactively, like a hunter who does not shoot at a hare, but at the place where, according to his assumption, the hare will be in the next moment.

Let's say you are photographing a flower in a field, and it's windy that day, you need to take into account the speed of the camera and at the same time catch the moment between gusts of wind. Difficult, but the result will be more valuable due to the effort spent.

Post-Processing Programs

Easiest editing on Instagram.

Post-processing of photos is done by most professional photographers, absolutely always in commercial photography, and for smartphone photography it is a vital necessity. You can't adjust shutter speed and aperture on a smartphone. This limitation is compensated by many post-processing programs. This is beyond the well-known Instagram and Flickr.

• VSCO Cam. Allows you to apply a variety of filters and settings. Distributed for free.
• Afterlight. Good for color correction. It costs 34 rubles.
• touch retouch. This simple tool allows you to remove small imperfections in the image and clone parts of the image. There are free and paid versions.
• snapseed. A huge number of filters and effects, such as tilt-shift and focus adjustment, sharpness and color adjustment. Distributed for free.
• Pixlr Express. Big choice filters, frames, effects. Completely free.
• Photoshop Express. It does not give any special settings, but there are a lot of different filters that make the processing process as fast as possible. Can work with RAW files. Conditionally free.
• Rookie. There are both free and paid features. The standard package of the application includes a lot of vintage filters adapted for different genres of photography: portraits, landscapes, city sketches, macro, etc.
• Phonto. Allows you to add any fonts you want to your photo. Distributed for free.
• Moldova. A free application in Russian that allows you to make collages by combining up to 9 pictures.
• MultiExpo(for iOS). An interesting application for creating the multiple exposure effect. Distributed for free.
• Photo Grid. Free application for making collages. Can work with files in high resolution.
• Lens Light. The application allows you to add highlights, glows and bokeh effects to your photos. It costs 99 rubles.

Slide show - The best way to present any pictures in an original way. Beautiful transitions, whimsical effects and pleasant music will turn an ordinary photo presentation into a captivating photo movie. If you've never created a video from photos but have always wanted to, now is the time to try it.

"PhotoSHOW PRO" will help you quickly mount a spectacular video from a photo. This tutorial details how to make a slideshow of photos and music in just a few minutes.

Step 1. Download the utility

To get started, we offer you to create a slideshow "PhotoSHOW PRO". Wait for the download to complete and then extract the downloaded archive. Install the utility on your computer using Installation Wizard. Next, run the program for the first time.

Step 2: Add a photo

Now you need to add beautiful photos. The left column contains an overview of all folders on the computer. Find the photos you need there and drag them to the work panel. If desired, slides with photos can be swapped, copied and deleted.

Under the Collages tab, you'll find dozens of versatile slide templates that you can add to any project. All blanks are already animated. All you need to do is drag the slide you like from the catalog to the timeline, embed photos into it and evaluate the result in the preview player. Your work will sparkle with new colors!

Step 3: Use Intros and Titles

Let's see how to make a photo slideshow using intros and titles. In the corresponding sections of the program, you will see a collection of ready-made templates. Use them or create your own design based on them. Choose the template you like and edit it to your taste.

Step 4Set Up Music and Transitions

If you want, sound it with suitable music. Open a tab "Music" and choose a beautiful melody from the collection or upload any track from your computer.

Connect photos with interesting transitions. In the tab with the same name, you will find a built-in catalog that contains standard, gradient, double and 3D transitions. Select a preset and drag it to a cell between slides.

Step 5 Apply Effects

You already know how to create slideshows from photos and music. Bright effects, which are located in the tab of the same name, will help to complement the presentation. Use your mouse to drag and drop the effects you are interested in onto the image slides. If you wish, you can edit the animation parameters, add clipart or text by clicking "Edit Slide"

Step 6Save your slideshow

How to make a slideshow available for viewing on a phone or player? "PhotoSHOW PRO" will allow you to easily upload the created video from photos to any device, as well as convert it to one format or another, burn it to DVD and merge it on the Internet. You only need to open the section "Create", save the project and select one of the presented export methods. Adjust video settings and start converting. Wait until the end of the work and play the resulting movie.

Creating musical slideshows from photos is not only easy, but also fun! Develop your creative abilities with "PhotoSHOW PRO".

Mega helpful post! In this post, I will tell you, my beloved readers, how you can easily compose amazing photo collections (not to be confused with photo collections of one author. Although ... you can confuse).

A few numbers instead of an introduction.
mid-autumn last year. The number of Runet sites is 16 million, the entire Internet - 640 million. That is, Russian users accounted for only 2.5% of the global audience. Given that 3.75 million "Runet" sites are search spam, and the vast majority of textual information - about 88% - is located on less than 1% (!) Sites, there is, by and large, nothing to "catch" here ...

How to make great photo collections?
As many have probably already understood, you need to look for photos where there are a lot of them - in the foreign segment of the Internet. However, knowledge of the English language is not required: with the help of online translators formulating your request in Busurman is easier than picking your nose.

In fact, everything is very simple. For example, you heard about the American actress Michelle Lynn Monaghan (Michelle Lynn Monaghan) - Gwen in "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and Kim in "The Bourne Supremacy".

What we do: open the Google search engine section - (http://images.google.com/). And write the name of the actress on English language(!). Then we press the search button.

Now we remember that we need “great photos” and go to the search settings (which could be set right away).


In the settings, select image search big size.


Now Google is finding really great photos of the actress at 1000, 2000, 3000 and more pixels.


To make a thematic selection, we also write a search query in English. Russian-language resources, as a rule, “spoil” photos with their stupid logos or reduce them to ridiculous sizes.

For example, to find cool pictures on a wedding theme, we write “wedding”. For "Germans", "French" and other losers - (http://translate.google.com/).
Here is what a large image search for "wedding dresses" will show us:


I hope everything is clear here. In the meantime, look at the charming Michelle Monaghan (photos reduced to 800 pixels).



















And finally, the promised surprise - a list of great sites where you can download equally great photos in large sizes. Some of the listed photobanks, in addition to free ones, also offer paid photos.

The most popular photobanks:
Stock.XCHNG - A very large photo bank, which currently contains about 400,000 photos. Registration (free) is required to be able to download photos.
Dreamstime - Is one of the most popular photobanks. The site has a special section where you can download very good work for free.
Stockvault - Another good photo bank.
WallpaperStock is not exactly a photo bank, but you can still find a lot of useful photos on the site, which sometimes, by the way, can be used in your work.
freefoto is the largest collection of free photos on the Internet.
Digital Dreamer - Free and paid images.
Free Photos Bank - New photos are constantly added.
Free Digital Photos - Luxurious, easy-to-download photos in categories such as animals, holidays, home and garden, and more.
PD Photo - Many categories and subcategories, most of which depict US urban and rural landscapes.
Visipix - Search through over a million photographs and fine art.
Cepolina - Photobank with the ability to save photos in five different formats.
DexHaus - Many beautiful pictures are on this well organized site.
FreeStockImages.net - You will most likely find what you need on this colossal site.
TurboPhoto - High resolution photos divided into 10 categories.
Open Stock Photography - This site contains about 2 million images.

Community Sites:
In addition to being a repository of images, these sites provide forums for community members to communicate.
Image After - Lots of free photos.
Unprofound.com - Use the photos however you want, just let the author know how and where you used his creation.
Font Play - About 10,000 free photos.
Studio 25 - Loading and searching for pictures.
Vintage Pixels - Archive photos.
Abstract Influence - To access free photos you need to register.
- The site has a forum and a blog, as well as a lot of photos.
Every Stock Photo - One of the most convenient photo searches. There is a forum and a blog.
Photocase - Check out your large background image libraries.
DeviantART - Provocative photos generate big debates on the site's forum.

Sites for photographers:
The following sites are aimed primarily at meeting the needs of photographers, designers, artists. And some of them, on these sites, offer their photos for free.
Morguefile - Thousands of beautiful photos on this site, archives.
Woopy - This site organizes photos by geographical location authors.
The NOAA Library - Library of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. On this site, pictures from the field of science and nature are available.
Pixel Perfect Digital - Free images and news photos.
Free Range Stock - Photographers are rewarded for providing their photos for free by having the site share a percentage of the profits with them.
AMG Media - You can use photos for free if you credit the author where you use them.
Free Photographs Network - Large collection of photographs.
FreePhotos.com - Here a photographer can win a prize by submitting their best photos.
PhotoRogue.com - If you still can't find a photo of what you need, on this site you can ask and ... Photographers will take pictures for you - and it's all free!
Graphicsarena.com - A small collection of various photographs.
Image Temple - Several different galleries.
Flickr - A special section of the site dedicated to free photos.
FreeLargePhotos.com - From here you can use photos for free, but you need to give credit.

Specific free photobanks:
Mayang's Free Texture Library - high resolution textures for architecture, buildings, factories, wood and stone.
Liam's Pictures from Old Books - High quality illustrations from old books.
Texture Warehouse - Interesting textures.
Free Stock Photos - Snapshots of nature and religious themes.
BurningWell - Free photos by category: animals, cities, people, plants and textures.
Design Packs - New images are added monthly.
Amazing Textures - Hundreds of high resolution textures and backgrounds.
Aarin Free Photo and Digital Images - There are many high resolution photos on the site for free use.
Image Base - Photos are organized into categories: nature, concepts, people, cities.
Majestic Imagery - All photos on this site were taken by the owner of the site.
Diwiesign studio - All photos are taken by the site owner. The images are free, but you can make a voluntary donation.
Zurb Photos - Photographer's Free Image Site Bryan Zmijewski.
tOfz.org - Photos of the city.
LIGHTmatter - Free photos of the site owner.
Insect Images - Free photos of all kinds of insects.

Free photobanks with add-ons
Sites positioning themselves as more than just a bank of free photos. Resources that offer additional services for finding and using free images.
Creative Commons - Non-commercial site.
Free Images - British site for free images.
Creating Online - Beyond photos, articles and tips.
ArtFavor - Photos, fonts, sounds, flash.
Geek Philosopher - Photo, blog and even hosting.
Gimp Savvy - Photos, articles and tips.
Creativity 103 - Free abstract images and videos.
Afflict.net - Photos and textures.
One Odd Dude - Photos, wallpapers, textures.
Discover - Photos, badges, icons.
- Photos and tips for Photoshop users.
AncestryImages.com - Antique portraits.
Free Media Goo - Images, audio and video.
National Park Service Digital Image Archive - Photographs from US national parks.
New York Public Library Digital Gallery - New York Public Library Gallery: Thousands of prints, drawings and photographs.

Miscellanea:
Sites that do not fit into any category.