PART I: TAKING BETTER SNAPS WITH A CHEAPER CAMERA. Chapter 1: Getting the Best from a Low-Cost Camera. How Cheap Is "Cheap"? Getting to Know Your Camera. Ten Universal Questions for Every Shot. Chapter 2: Why Most Snaps Fail to Impress. Some Common Errors. What Makes a "Good" Snapshot? Ten Cost-Nothing Tips for Better Snaps. Chapter 3: First Steps in Portraiture with FREE and Low-Cost Lighting. Creating One-Lamp Portraitures. Making Your Own Low-Key Lighting Kit. Creating No-Lamp Portraitures: Taking It Outdoors. Using Scrims to Soften Sunlight. Getting More Lights for Less. Resources. PART II: GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY. Chapter 4: Choosing a Better Camera. The Four Digital Camera Types. Shopping Around for a New Camera. Users' Recommendations. Getting an Entry-Level DSLR at a Rock-Bottom Price. Read FREE Reviews Online: 10 Leading Review Sites. Chapter 5: Keeping It Steady: Tripods, Monopods, and VR Lenses. Blur Reduction: A Big Step Towards Better Photographic Technique. Using Tripods and Heads. Low-Cost Tricks for Reducing Blur. Chapter 6: Saving Money on Lenses. Why People Argue About Lenses. Recommended High-Value Lenses. Using Older Lenses on a New Camera. Chapter 7: In Praise of the 50mm Lens. Using a Lens Chart. Using 50mm with Full-Frame, 1.5x, 1.6x, and 1.7x Crop Factor Sensors. Five Reasons to Buy the "Nifty Fifty". Shooting with a 50mm Lens. PART III: KEEPING COSTS DOWN. Chapter 8: Cost-Cutting Tips for Better Photography. Setting White Balance. Setting Exposure. Cropping: The Pro Technique Available to All. Chapter 9: Shooting RAW and Processing It For FREE. The Rise of the RAW Format. The Snags of Using RAW. Software for RAW Processing. Chapter 10: Shooting Macro Without a Macro Lens. Four Ways to Get Macro Shots. Lighting for Your Macro Shots. Using Lens Stacking to Take Macro Shots. Making a Tabletop Studio for Macro Photography. Building a Mini Light Box for Small Product Photography. Chapter 11: DIY: Cleaning Your DSLR Sensor. Common Contaminants and How to Get Rid of Them. Cleaning the Chamber. Testing Your Cleaning Method. Chapter 12: DIY: Making Your Own Lens Hood. Considering Lens Hood Types. Finding Lens Hood Templates Online. Making a Superhood for a 50mm Lens. Making a Flexihood for a Telephoto Lens. Chapter 13: More DIY Photo Fun Accessories. Making Pop-Up Flash Diffusers. DIY Accessories for Flash Guns. Making Your Own Lenses. Getting Decorative Bokeh Effects. Getting Soft Focus Without a Special Lens. Finding Low-Cost Tripods for Your Compact Camera. Emulating Aerial Photography Without the Airplane. Chapter 14: FREE Photo Calculators. Printing, Cutting, and Assembling Your Own FREE Exposure Calculator. Using the Golden Ratio. For a Few Dollars: Photo Calculation Software for the iPhone. Optical System Calculators. Print Size Calculation. Chapter 15: FREE and Low-Cost Utility Software. FREE and Low-Cost Exif Tools. FREE and Low-Cost Screen Capture Utilities. FREE Color Pickers. FREE Online Color Analysis. FREE File Archiving Utilities. Low-Cost Image Compression Software. FREE JPEG Lossless Rotation. FREE and Low-Cost Data Recovery Software. "Free Scan" Photo Recovery Software. PART IV: SCRUTINIZING, SORTING, AND RESIZING YOUR IMAGES. Chapter 16: Monitor Calibration for Next to Nothing. Understanding Gamma. Calibration for Windows and Mac. FREE Online Monitor Calibration. FREE Online Tutorials on Monitor Calibration. Chapter 17: FREE and Low-Cost Image Viewers. Top FREE and Low-Cost Image Viewers for Windows. Image Viewers for Mac: Why the Mac Is Different. Chapter 18: FREE and Low-Cost Photo Organizing Software. The Difference Between Sorting and Cataloging. Searching Through Untagged Images. Other Good FREE Photo Organizing Software. For a Few Dollars: More Photo Organizing Software. Chapter 19: FREE and Low-Cost Image Resizing Tools. Choosing the Right Tool. FREE Desktop Image Resizing Software. FastStone Photo Resizer. FREE Software for Batch Resizing. FREE Online Image Resizing Tools. For Just a Few Dollars. PART V: IMPROVING YOUR IMAGES. Chapter 20: FREE and Low-Cost Image Enhancement Software. Enhancement and Editing: What's the Difference? Recommended FREE Basic Image Adjustment Tools. Other FREE Image Adjustment Tools. FREE Batch Correction Image Adjustment Tools. For a Few Dollars. Chapter 21: FREE Image-Editing Software. What to Look for in a FREE Image Editor. The Top Four FREE Windows Products. Seashore for Macintosh. The Best of the Rest: All FREE. Chapter 22: FREE Online Image Editors. Online Software: The Long-Term Winner. Featured Software: The Top Five. Best of the Rest. Chapter 23: FREE and Low-Cost Denoising Software. Noise Reduction Software. Recommended FREE Denoising Software. FREE Multiplatform (Java-Based) Denoising Software. For a Few Dollars: Low-Cost Denoising Software. Chapter 24: Building Powerful Software Suites with Plug-ins. Adobe Photoshop Elements: The Low-Cost Host for Best-of-Breed Plug-ins. GIMP: Pimp Your GIMP with Dozens of Great Plug-ins. Enhancing Paint.NET with Plug-ins. PART VI: MAKING HI-RES MOSAICS, PANORAMAS, AND HDR IMAGES. Chapter 25: Getting Hi-Res Images from a Low-Res Camera. FREE Versus Commercial Stitching Software. Chapter 26: Panoramic Photography. Taking Panoramas Without a Tripod. Finding the Optical Center of a Lens. Why Is Panoramic Photography Normally Expensive? The Panosaurus: a Low-Cost Panoramic Head. Building Your Own Panoramic Head. Useful Resources. Chapter 27: Low-Cost Panoramic and Virtual Tour Software. Software for Making Panoramas. Software for Displaying Panoramas. Chapter 28: Creating High Dynamic Range Images. Two Reasons to Use HDR. Commercial or FREE? Which Software Is Best for HDR? FREE HDR Software. Low-Cost HDR Software. PART VII: SHARING & PUBLISHING YOUR WORK. Chapter 29: FREE Image Hosting. What to Look for in a FREE Image Host. Directories. Selected FREE Image Hosting Providers. Chapter 30: FREE Online Photo-Sharing Sites. Must-Have Photo-Sharing Features. Selected FREE Online Photo-Sharing Sites. Photo-Sharing Sites with FREE Basic Accounts. FREE Sites with Additional Features. Chapter 31: Online Photo Communities. What Online Photo Communities Can Do for You, and You for Them. Communities FREE to Registered Users. Low-Cost Photo Communities. Smaller and Specialist Photo Communities. Chapter 32: FREE Web Publishing Software. Using PHP to Create Your Online Gallery. FREE PHP-Based Photo Gallery Software. FREE Flash Gallery Creation Software. CSS-Based Image Galleries. FREE Java-Based Photo Gallery Software. Creating AJAX-Based Photo Galleries. FREE Website Design Software with Gallery Features. PART VIII: GETTING READY TO PRINT. Chapter 33: Low-Cost Image Rescaling Software. Why Is Most Up-Rezzing Software So Pricey? Some Low-Cost Image-Rescaling Alternatives. Chapter 34: Low-Cost Online Printing Services. Cheaper Than Home Printing. Online Photo Printers with Opening Offers (U.S. and International). Online Photo Printers with Opening Offers (U.K.). Directories of FREE Photo-Printing Offers. Premium Printing Services. PART IX: LEARNING MORE ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY, FOR NEXT TO NOTHING. Chapter 35: FREE Online Tuition. How to Evaluate Online Instruction. Highly Recommended FREE Online Tutorials. FREE Video Tutorials on Photography. FREE Photoshop Tutorials Online. Chapter 36: FREE Online Photo Resources. Photo Megasites You Have to Visit. Leading Camera-Specifi c Websites. FREE Photography Magazines Online. FREE Art Photography Magazines Online. Sites for Landscape Photographers. Sites for Nature and Wildlife Photographers. Sites for Photojournalists. Sites for Portrait Photographers. PhotoStartSheet.com. Index.
