Mister Nifty » Photography

How to Create An Authentic Black And White Photograph

Brian Fegter — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:34:42 +0000

Have you ever tried taking a color photograph and converting it to black and white? A lot of programs do this for you automatically, but they simply desaturate (take away all the color data) and leave a limp grayscale image with no contrast. The leading quality of black and white photography is contrast. In order to take your photo from good to great, you need to add contrast and possibly some synthetic grain to your image. I’ve created a quick tutorial to show you how to easily make your photo go from Ooooo to Ahhhhh.

If you don’t have Photoshop, try downloading GIMP which is a free alternative to Photoshop.

How to Create An Authentic Black And White Photograph is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Easy Mosaic and Text Photos

Brian Fegter — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:18:43 +0000

Mosaic Photos

If you’ve ever wanted to create a mosaic photo out of hundreds of other photos, it’s free and easy to do. Download the free Foto Mosaik software (Windows only, sorry guys). Here are a couple mosaic photos I’ve created.

Kayaking Photo

This is a compilation photo of about 300 photos I took while kayaking to a small island near our house in Titusville, Florida.

Wedding Photo

This made a great poster, and was composed of over 500 images I took at Eric and Natasha’s wedding.

Here’s how it works:

Create a database of photos to use in a mosaic.
Select a base photo, then select your database
WHAM! It’s done in a minute.

You can create high resolution posters for printing as well. A creative use for this would be to take a photo of your church building and make a large poster mosaic of photos from a church event. You could also make a mosaic globe with photos of missions trips.

Go to Foto Mosaik

Text Photos

ASCGEN is a great little program that converts your photos to text. It’s a pretty awesome effect that can add some interesting elements to your designs. Here’s a self-portrait I took and converted to text, then overlayed it on the original in Photoshop.

Download ASCGEN

Easy Mosaic and Text Photos is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Free Burnout Texture Set

Brian Fegter — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:25:47 +0000

I took some photos of a fire near my house out in the Canaveral Marshes yesterday. I came up with some cool texture photos I wanted to share with everyone. Feel free to use these in your designs to add some extra umph! You could use some of these textures when talking about burnout or topics similar. Overlay boring solid boxes with texture by adjusting the opacity and layer blend modes in Photoshop. You can get the original files by right-clicking on the thumbs and saving the link, or you can click through and save the original image once it displays. Enjoy!

Free Burnout Texture Set is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Free Fireworks Production Set

Brian Fegter — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:05:05 +0000

Mister Nifty Exclusive!

I created this production set for churches. You may use it free-of-charge for any church-related production. You do not have to give a credit link. You may not use this artwork for any commercial or personal purposes without contacting me first. Let me know what you think!

Download Files

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Basic Photography Tutorial

Brian Fegter — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:25:49 +0000

I came up with this illustrative concept a few years ago and I’ve used it teach the basics of photography to my students. This is a short abbreviated version that will help you visualize the process of how a good photograph is made. Hopefully it will challenge up-and-coming photographers to switch to the manual mode on their SLR rather than the program settings.

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Free Online Image Editing

Brian Fegter — Wed, 21 May 2008 12:52:07 +0000

There are plenty of times I’ve been away from my design software and I need to do some retouching, but I don’t have access to good tools. Splashup is an awesome way to edit your images online. It has layering, effects, blending modes, and a multitude of other features. You can import your images from a variety of social networks including Facebook, Flickr, and Picasa.

Another one I’m watching is Aviary. I can’t wait until all their intense tools are finished. It’s still in alpha mode (they just opened up to the first testers) and you need an invitation. If you want to check it out I have five invitations left. The first five people to ask get one. The only thing I ask is that you leave a comment and give your invitations out to other Mister Nifty guests as well. Fair?

There are a host of other image editors out there as well. Do a Google search for online image editing and find one that fits your needs. They are all FREE!!!

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Working With Photos

Brian Fegter — Tue, 20 May 2008 05:57:01 +0000

In the past six months I have clicked over 10,000 frames at weddings, studio sessions, engagements, graduations, and anything you can think of. That’s a ton of photos to manage. This post is by request of several people wanting to know about my workflow when I post process my photos. I have stuck with my free dogma in the world of photography as well. Here are the tools I use to process batches of photos and get them on the web.

I use Google’s Picasa to organize my photos. First of all, it’s free. Secondly, you can easily star photos that you want to pull from the batch later. If I need minor corrections, I will use Google’s simple controls. If they need more intricate corrections, I open them in Photoshop and enhance them there. If you don’t have Photoshop try downloading GIMP, the open source version of Photoshop.
If I’m going to be displaying these photos on the web, I use a Picasa plugin called Simple Viewer. Basically you can export your entire folder of photos into a nice Flash viewer. It creates the the entire gallery for you. All you have to do is upload it to your hosting server and viola! it’s ready to go. Simple Viewer is FREE!!! Check out a gallery a sample gallery here.
Next comes the question where I store my photos. I am a firm believer in backing up your data. I have multiple external hard drives and flash drives sitting all over the place. However, I do not use a hard drive as my main backup for photos. Documents can be replaced, but the moments captured on photos can never be replaced. For my storage needs, I use Flickr. I will probably lose my FREE groupies here, but hear me out. I spend $2.00/month on a pro account that gives me unlimited storage. I upload all of my originals and keep them private. If I want to share photos, I upload a batch of resized photos. Flickr keeps the files backed up on multiple servers and I know my data is safe. Plus I can access any of my photos anywhere in the world. It’s beautiful. To be safe though, I burn ever batch of photos on a DVD and keep it safely stored in case Flickr ever goes away. With Flickr, you can access your photos from printing sites and a variety of other photo services. You can also pull your photos into galleries on your website. Check out Tilt Viewer (A sister product of Simple Viewer) that allows you to plug in your Flickr user name and pull whatever photos you wish with no headache involved. I could go on and on about Flickr, but I won’t. Try it for yourself! It’s cheap and it’s a blast. For the cheapskates, Flickr offers a free account…but you can only display 200 photos. Now’s a good time to splurge.
Here’s how I upload batches of photos to my Flickr account. I use a browser called Flock. It’s free and easy to use. It allows you to add descriptions to all of your photos, select which set (folder) you want to upload it to and it takes care of all the rest. It’s super easy. It is my choice uploader because I can set my permissions for the batch before I upload it. Don’t use the official Flickr uploader, it has a bunch of bugs and always locked up on me. For all the Firefox users, you can add a simple plugin to upload photos to your Flickr account. It’s called Fire Uploader. It also allows you to upload to Facebook, You Tube, and a variety of other social networking sites. Fire Uploader is pretty featureless, so don’t expect to set permissions or anything like that. It only allows you to choose which set you want to upload to.
Lastly, if you don’t want to use Flickr, there are some free gallery softwares you can install on your site and host your own photos. I use Gallery for my photography business to let people see their proofs. Also, you can download JAlbum and use it to organize and display your photos. If you would like to take a look at some of my photos, check out my personal blog at: http://brian.fegter.com/my-photography.

Working With Photos is a post from: Mister Nifty

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100 Legal Sources for Free Stock Images

Brian Fegter — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:00:58 +0000

Thank you to Laura Milligan from virtualhosting.com for this great list of free stock images. I firmly believe the church above every other entity in this world should adhere to strict ethical guidelines when dealing with digital content. Many churches use images without even thinking that they are someone else’s intellectual property. This list is for those who can’t spend money on images, but need good quality images for their presentations and promotions. Please check the license agreements first before using any of these photos. As always, please be cautious as you browse through stock galleries as some photographers may post “human form”. Take the meat from the bones on this list. (Copied from virtualhosting.com – Go to the original post)

FreeFoto: FreeFoto.com claims to be â€œthe largest collection of free photographs on the Internet.â€ Theyâ€™re available for offline projects as well, as long as youâ€™re not using them to make a profit.
KAVEWALL: Look for images and textures in unique categories like tattoo, smoke, and food.
Digital Dreamer: Free, royalty-free stock images can be found here.
Free Photos Bank: This features a handful of the newest photos in their directory, so check back often.
Free Digital Photos: Find gorgeous, easy-to-download photographs in categories like animals, celebrations, home & garden, and lots more.
PD Photo: Browse through the categories and subcategories in this siteâ€™s database, most of which depict the urban and rural landscapes of the United States.
Visipix: Search over a million photographs and fine art pieces.
Cepolina: On cepolina, you can choose to save photos in up to five different formats.
DexHaus: A wide array of beautiful images are found on this well-organized site.
FreeStockImages.net: Chances are youâ€™ll find whatever it is youâ€™re looking for on this terrific site.
TurboPhoto: TurboPhoto has 10 categories keep the high res photos easy to find.
Yotophoto: An immensely popular site, Yotophoto is worth checking out.
Stockvault: Search by photo subject or by the newest and most popular photos on Stockvault.
Dreamstime: While most of the photos on this site cost a fee (some as low as $0.26/image), Dreamstime provides a few free stock photos.
Open Stock Photography: This site offers over one million images for you to download and use however you want.

Community-Powered Content

In addition to being a great source of images, these sites host forums, file sharing and other features designed to nurture community spirit.

Image After: Search tons of free photos on this site while meeting other photography lovers on the forum.
Unprofound.com: Use the images however you want, just make sure you let them know where youâ€™ve published it!
Font Play: This site has nearly 10,000 free photos for you to use any way you want. Look under the â€œGuestsâ€ heading to search by your favorite contributor.
Studio 25: This attractive site lets you upload and search images.
Vintage Pixels: Share your archived photos with other users. Download images that work for your Web site or blog.
Abstract Influence: Search for the stock images you want while talking about photography with other visitors on the siteâ€™s forum.
amygdelaâ€™s atmosphere: This site hosts a forum and a blog, as well as tons of stock images.
Every Stock Photo: A forum and blog keep this stock image site fun and informative.
Photocase: The good people at Photocase are â€œprettying up the world.â€ Check out their great library of stock images.
deviantART: Provocative photos spawn great debates on the siteâ€™s forum.

Artists Welcome

Itâ€™s probably pretty safe to say that every stock image site on the Web needs the help of photographers to keep it running. The following sites, however, really cater to the needs of photographers, designers, and other artists even though theyâ€™re donating their photos for free.

Stock.xchng: Check out the gorgeous shots organized into lots of different categories, making your search as easy as possible.
Morguefile: Browse thousands of beautiful photos in this siteâ€™s archives, but donâ€™t miss their job board either!
Woophy: This site organizes photographs by geographical location. Enter into their contest for a chance to win great prizes.
The NOAA Library: Breathtaking science and nature shots are available at this site. Donâ€™t forget to check out the â€œMeet the Photographersâ€ page which includes short bios and descriptions of the featured photogs.
Pixel Perfect Digital: Get tons of free stock images and read the latest in photography news.
Free Range Stock: Photographers are rewarded for giving away their pictures by getting a percentage of the siteâ€™s total ad revenue.
AMG Media: As long as you give credit to the photographer somewhere on your site, these images are yours for the taking.
Free Photographs Network: Submit photographs for others to see, or download some for your own use.
FreePhotos.com: If youâ€™re a photographer, submit your best pictures for a chance to win cool prizes.
PhotoRogue.com: If you canâ€™t find a picture of anything you want, go to PhotoRogue.com and make a request for whatever it is youâ€™re thinking of. Photographers will take pictures for you â€” and itâ€™s still free!
Graphicsarena.com: Submit your photos for consideration.
Fotogenika: Send in your photos for other visitors to use on their personal sites.
Image Temple: Send in your own photos to be included in this siteâ€™s gallery.
Flickr: Most of the photos on this site are not free, but a clever search will turn up some real goodies.
FreeLargePhotos.com: Downloaders must link their chosen photo back to the site, which gives the photographer credit.

Less is Sometimes More

Just because the sites listed in this section arenâ€™t as expansive as some of the others on our list doesnâ€™t mean theyâ€™re not worth checking out. Sometimes less can really means more, especially when it comes to narrowing down your search or coming across hard-to-find treasures.

Mayangâ€™s Free Texture Library: Download high-res textures from this site, which has categories like architecture, buildings, plants, wood, and stone.
Liamâ€™s Pictures from Old Books: Discover hard-to-find illustrations from old books, â€œmost with multiple high-resolution versions.â€
Texture Warehouse: Find interesting textures at this great site.
Free Stock Photos: Nature shots and religious themes are abundant at this free stock photography site.
BurningWell: Totally free images are organized into categories like animals, bugs, cityscapes, people, plants, and textures.
Design Packs: New images and themes are added monthly, so this site may not be a well kept secret too much longer!
Amazing Textures: This site is a web designerâ€™s dream. Browse hundreds of high res textures and backgrounds.
Aarin Free Photo and Digital Images: These site boasts nearly 1,000 fantastic images for you to choose from.
Image Base: On Image Base, breathtaking photographs are organized in categories like nature, concept, people, and city.
Majestic Imagery: All the photos on this site were taken by the host.
diwiesign studio: All the images are free, but if youâ€™re a frequent user, you might want to consider making a donation to this photo entrepreneur.
Zurb Photos: Photographer Bryan Zmijewski uploads his own images onto this site.
tOfz.org: Find urban images for free, but consider making a contribution to this artistâ€™s cause.
LIGHTmatter: These gorgeous photos were all taken by the same artist, who also hosts the Web site.
Insect Images: Find all kinds of photos of creepy crawlers here.

Stock Images Plus

There is a lot more to legal stock images than just a bank of free photos. The sites in this section all go beyond being a basic stock photography resource by offering more services that will help improve your search for and use of stock images.

Creative Commons: This nonprofit site shows you how to license your images once theyâ€™ve been uploaded onto your site.
Free Images: This British site offers free images as well as wallpapers, desktops, and a section of ideas and tips that will help you customize your image experience, whether youâ€™re a photographer or not.
Creating Online: This stock images site is an excellent resource for any new blogger or Web site developer. Learn about editing your images, hosting, domains, and more.
ArtFavor: Find stock images, fonts, sounds, flash clipart, and more, are all on this terrific site.
Geek Philosopher: Find hilarious and beautiful stock images side by side. Also check out the siteâ€™s blog and web hosting capabilities.
Gimp Savvy: In addition to finding great images, Gimp Savvy also gives tips on photo touchups, making a collage, and more.
Creativity 103: Find free abstract images and videos on Creativity 103.
Afflict.net: Search photos and textures while learning about images in the tutorials section.
One Odd Dude: Download photographs, wallpapers, textures, and more on One Odd Dude.
Discover: Search for your favorite subjects or web sites, and hundreds of free icons, stock images, and other designs will appear.
Photoshop Support: On Photoshop Support, browse photos, read the tutorials, and check out the great imaging tools.
AncestryImages.com: Search antique portraits and use the geneaology resources link to connect you to even more tools.
Free Media Goo: Download free stock images, audio, and video on Free Media Goo.
National Park Service Digital Image Archive: Check out beautiful pictures taken for the NPS. This site also provides a link to the NPS official site.
<New York Public Library Digital Gallery: Browse through thousands of prints, illustrations, and photos. Read the photographic services and permissions page for more information on downloading high-res files.

Miscellaneous

These image sites donâ€™t necessarily fit into one particular category, but theyâ€™ve still got a lot to offer.

Backgrounds Archive: Find beautiful backgrounds for your desktop or MySpace page.
USDA Agricultural Research Service: The governmentâ€™s Agricultural Research Service sponsors this â€œcomplimentary source of high quality digital photographs.â€
Holy Land Photos: Poignant photos of the Holy Land are available here.
Stockcache.com: This site makes organizing your downloads easy.
Four Bees: Browse through the stock images directory, or download royalty free music and video on Four Bees.
Clipmarks: Search for free stock images with this handy tool.
Yellowstone Digital Slide File: These beautiful shots of Yellowstone National Park are available for use by the media and public.
Plants of Hawaii: Perfect for any botanist, this site has over 45,000 images of Hawaiian plants.
Microshots: This site specializes in microscopic images.
IN TEXTURE: Free stock textures are plentiful on this site.
Trip Album: This site is all in French, but the photos are divided into categories based on country, making it easy to figure out.
Orange Trash: Find pictures about Hungary on this Web site.
Public domain stock photos: Browse categories like backgrounds, food, nature, objects, and seasonal on this site.
BAJstock: Written in both French and English, this stock image site has tons of photos for you to use for free.
NWYK Stock Image Library: This hilarious site provides free images that capture the drudgery and playfulness of office life.

General

These stock image sites offer a wide range of photo subjects, perfect for casual browsing or a way to get ideas before you plan out your site.

Public Domain Photos: Check out these gorgeous pictures of animals, cities, landscapes, and more.
Bigfoto.com: Find photos of beautiful places all around the world, as well as fun shots in the Christmas, grafitti, or food categories
Photogen: Look through the Top 10 gallery to find the most popular downloads in a preview-friendly thumbnail format.
Free Pixels: Find free photos, logos, or other images on this site.
DHD Multimedia Gallery: Search through thousands of basic photos.
PIX: This site is so easy, you donâ€™t even have to register to download.
Photo Rack: New photos are featured at the bottom of the page, so check back often to make sure you donâ€™t miss anything great.
Free Stock Photos: On Free Stock Photos, each image comes with a description detailing its size.
Barryâ€™s Free Photos: This is a great site for finding all different kinds of images for your Web site.
Cromavista: This site is all in Spanish but still easy to navigate if youâ€™re not a native speaker.
IronOrchid: Several different categories allow for an efficient search on IronOrchid.
Image Blowout: Have fun looking through these unique photos.
FreeImages.com: Tons of categories and subcategories make searching for photos on this site simple.
ilovefreePhoto: This fun, attractive site makes searching for that perfect photo a little less frustrating.
Free Photo Station: Loads of great photos are all free on this site.

100 Legal Sources for Free Stock Images is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Free high resolution photos for your promotions

Brian Fegter — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 06:40:06 +0000

Free Range Stock is a community of photographers that supply free photographs to anyone who wants to use them. Their limitations are extremely loose for usage rights. You don’t even have to put a credit on the photos that you use. If you don’t see what you need, they can post your topic or theme on a board for photographers to submit photos for that category. It’s really a great site that frees up churches from ‘stealing’ (did I say that?) photos from high priced stock websites.

Copying images from the internet without permission is STEALING. If you don’t know where your creative team is getting their images, check them out. Find out of they are using a pay site, or just scrounging images anywhere they can get them. If it is the latter, get them to stop, and do that by giving them this free resource and a good lecture. Your church could get in serious trouble if you are using someone else’s image without their permission. There have been multi-million dollar lawsuits over single images. For example, three years ago, our local Walmart was sued for 1 million dollars because they duplicated a professional photographers work. The photographer won hands down. Don’t think this can’t happen to a church. Use this free resource until you can get a photo budget for your creative team. Here are some stock sites I use (pay sites) that are extremely cheap. bigstockphoto.com stockxpert.com

Free high resolution photos for your promotions is a post from: Mister Nifty

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Free High Resolution Images

Brian Fegter — Sat, 12 May 2007 03:45:30 +0000

I know the name is a bit scary, but these guys stock free high-resolution imagery for you to download and use. Make sure you adhere to their legal specs. Other than that, have a blast downloading free photos and images for your screen and promotions ministry!

Free High Resolution Images is a post from: Mister Nifty