If you had chosen to learn about photography 20 years ago you would have had to learn a great deal more about film speed, exposure value, shutter speeds, and focal length. You may have needed to have your own dark room in order to develop your photos as well as needing much more equipment in order to get great photos. Today’s budding photographer has it much easier since the advent of digital technology. While photography is still considered an incredible art it is much easier to do.

To develop photos you had to deal with chemicals and a drying process that was time consuming. The chemicals were toxic and dangerous to breathe in. With the digital cameras that are in use today we have instantaneous photo gratification and can immediately see whether the photo we took was good or bad. The simple act of hooking your camera up to your computer will enable you to print your photos with no more wait at the photo processing stand.

While very few professional photographers actually use film and darkrooms these days, every one of them still edit their photos to create professional looking results. No matter their skill or the expense of their camera, professional photographers rarely take photos that require zero editing. The secret tool of professional photographers is Adobe Photoshop.

The incredible array of tools and features of Adobe Photoshop is what makes it number one among professional photographers.

Photoshop contains all the necessary tools to turn an average picture into a photograph that looks as if it was taken by a professional in the best lighting condition possible. Every tool that a photographer would need to edit their photos is contained within this program.

One of the nicest things about Photoshop is its simplicty. There are no hazardous chemicals or poor lighting conditions or delays in development. Everything you need is easily accessible and quickly learned.

No one can predict the weather and lighting issues are one of the main things that can ruin a photo. Regardless of the lighting situation, you can make every photo look as if it were taken under the best lighting condition possible with Adobe Photoshop. Another common problem is red-eye and Photoshop allows you to remove red-eyes quickly and easily. You can also remove objects in the photograph as well as replace it with something else as if it was really there.

For example, you can remove overhead electrical wires from the photos you take of a particular landmark. You can even remove complete strangers that can potentially ruin a perfect group photo of your friends. You can even change out the background in a particular photograph with Adobe Photoshop.

Quickly and easily restore cherished photograhs with a simple scanner and the tools in Photoshop. Print your results out on high quality photo paper and fool your friends and family with the actual age of the photograph itself. The task is simple and is not time consuming. This simple job is much easier with Photoshop than if you had to manually do it using a darkroom and chemicals.

These are only a few of the things you can do with this program. If photography is your hobby, then you will definitely see that Adobe Photoshop will be able to help you out in ways that you never thought possible. With this software, you can be sure that you will be able to make any photos you take look professional.

I heard recently where it is good to surround ourselves with things that move us. As an an artist, I am definitely one of those people who can walk into a room and “feel” it. It is good to practice our art just for ourselves sometimes…just to feel and feed our souls. This project will do just that…and may make the world a little better place in the progress.

Let us all look for the good. Let us all learn and keep our hearts open to what God is saying to us. Take pictures of someone doing something good or someone who just needs a picture taken of them because of a connection you made with them or a stirring in your heart. It could be someone whose story touched your heart. It might even be someone you did not get to speak with but God showed you something special through this person.

Do this for one year. Set a goal for how many images you would like to use (one a day, week or month) At the end of the year make a collage of your images and print it out or put it into a book and write a little about what moved you in each image. At the end of the year you will have a special memento of the the things that have touched your heart throughout the year and maybe even a few life lessons.

3 Great Things to Do with Your Random Acts of Photography:

• What a great coffee table book this would be!
• If you are a professional photographer, this would be an awesome idea to do as a slideshow and publish on your website to show clients.
• Publish as a Calendar – what a great gift this would make at Christmas time!

One of the key features on many modern smartphones is the excellent camera facilities that are on offer. As the camera features have improved in quality the number of applications available to enhance these facilities has also increased. The iPhone has typically had access to the best software in this area but a new Android app named Paper Camera has been released which is perfect for devices such as the HTC Sensation XL and Sensation XE.

There are numerous applications available that enable you to manipulate how your photographs look. Many of these are very poor in quality but occasionally one comes along which produces superb results. Last year we saw the Instagram app for the iPhone 4 become a global success thanks to its beautiful visuals and simple interface and now Android have a similar option in the shape of Paper Camera. Rather than confuse the user with multiple options and effects this new software is very simple to use which is why it will appeal to many Android consumers. The attractive thing about Paper Camera is that it applies the effects to your photograph in real time. What this basically means is that you can see how the image will look before you actually take the photograph. This is a much quicker system than what is offered by alternative software which relies upon you capturing the image and then applying the effects afterwards. Some of the effects that this application produces look superb. The sketch option looks artistic and has a retro feel while another option multiplies the image by four and applies a different colour filter to each individual picture. The result of this is a modern looking image that is reminiscent of something that may have been painted by Andy Warhol. Thanks to the high quality displays used by devices such as the HTC Sensation XL and XE the results look fantastic.

The Paper Camera application for the HTC Sensation XL uses an interface that phone users of all ages will find easy to navigate. Rather than present the user with a complex screen full of various effects the interface is very minimal. In an attempt to make the software look totally different from many rivals the developers have given the home screen a design that looks as though it has been roughly sketched on a notepad. This gives the application a unique look and feel which feels a million miles away from the copycat interfaces used by many similar systems. Retrieving your images is also a very simple task. Rather than final photographs being stored within the software itself they are placed directly into your photo gallery so they can be viewed alongside all of your other images. Although the application may be a little basic for photographers looking for more advanced results it will appeal to the majority of Android users and the fact that it has already gained over half a million downloads supports this fact.

Some premium Android devices such as the HTC Sensation XL and XE combine very high quality camera facilities with displays that offer extremely high resolution. Such handsets are perfect for applications such as Paper Camera which give you photographs a fun and attractive twist.