Geoffrey A. Isley
2707 Mill Road
.O. Box 142
Grantham, PA
17027-0142

Office Phone:
717.609-4926

E-Mail: geoff@isleydesign.com

Skype: geoffisley

I have been interested in photography for years and years, and have taken several courses while in college. I learned to develop and print my own black and white photographs and manage a darkroom at my previous job. Most of my work has been in the vein of art directing or actually shooting pictures in conjunction with designing publications or web sites. I have been using my trusty Pentax ZX-M for several years for both color and black and white projects. I have several lenses for everything from close-up work to sports (a long zoom) photography.

With the addition of my new Pentax K10 10megapixel DSLR camera, I am now working more and more on photographic work for digital publications of all types. From high resolution cover-quality shots to ooptimized web-oriented digital imagery, I can now provide quick and flexible results for almost any solution for your unique communications needs.

Also below: "Buying a digital camera?" article

Contact me today to schedule your photsession.

Some guidelines & tips for taking better pictures

When submitting digital photographs for publication use, please keep in mind that you cannot usually see the difference between a low resolution image and a high-resolution one at normal size on your computer monitor. You'd need to enlarge the image on screen 200 to 500% to see the pixels begin to show up. or if you'd print it on your inkjet at the highest setting, you can see if it will appear too jaggy or blurry to work in print.

Photo-Taking Composition tips:

  1. Try to capture the subject's face as the focus. And take several photos in a row, to be sure you capture the best smile, or people's eyes are all open in a natural way -- especially if the group or family is large.
  2. Get CLOSER to eliminate too much distracting background imagery.
  3. When taking a picture of a one person --turn the camera sideways to get more of a portrait format instead of a landscape orientation, which is better for larger groups.
  4. Avoid glaring noon-time sunlight (straight overhead) which makes eyes look dark and sunken. Morning or late afternoon light is better. Also flash photos can look flat and unattractive, avoid it is possible.
  5. Avoid complicated backdrops with too much going on. Depending on the purpose of the photo, this may be too distracting.
  6. Avoid putting the subject smack dab against a blank white wall -- which produces ugly shadows around their head. Instead place the person 3-4 feet away from a neutral wall or backdrop - or in a location that tells something interesting about the person's job or interests.

When TAKING Digital Photos Yourself:

  1. The photo needs to be taken at the highest quality setting possible on your digital camera. This may be marked as LOW resolution, or "normal" quality on your camera. generally these digital images will be suitable only for on-line use, such as a web site, or for sharing through e-mail with friends and family. They are NOT suitable for quality color print or publication use.
  2. Check your camera's instruction manual to be sure you have it set at "hi-rez." Note: This will not allow you to save very many photos in your camera's memory. (That's why most people don't use this setting.)
  3. Saving the Photo into the camera itself as a TIFF will produce superior results, but JPEG compressions is also acceptable if it has not been saved over and over again repeatedly (because each time you save it as a JPEG again it re-compresses the image, leaving out critical color information and degrading the sharpness, clarity, etc of the image).

When Scanning a Photo Snapshot Yourself:

  1. Make sure the scanner is set to scan at 300 dpi.
  2. Save the scanned image as a TIFF.
  3. It's best to scan directly from a traditional film photo print (or even its negative) rather than scanning an inkjet print -- even if it has been printed on photo paper. The scanner will pick up individual pixels, and the results will be very grainy.

Before sending the photo via e-mail: Check to see if

  1. Minimum file size should be approximately One (1) Megabyte, the dimensions of the photo should be roughly 3 x 5 inches (or larger) at 300 dpi.
  2. Do Not send a photo that is 12 x 24 inches at 72 dpi.
  3. Images generally posted on internet web sites are not suitable because for space saving reasons, these images will have been re-sized to optimize them for web use, which leaves out lots of digital information needed to keep a photo hi-rez.
  4. The photo is not copyrighted. Many professional portrait photographers own legal protection to their prints, even if you have paid them for it. Olan Mills, for instance will not allow you to scan and print from their photos. But, if you write them for permission for a nonprofit-related use, they may grant one-time permission.
BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA?
The main difference in digital cameras these days is the weight! Get one that's light enough not to weigh you down. You can get a decent smallish one that's perfect for on-screen viewing for about $100.

The other thing is to get one that's suited to your needs. Some have too many high-end-like features that can just be very confusing... it makes a huge difference if this is a replacement for a life-time of "real" camera useage." If you already know what aperture priority, etc, is... then go ahead and make sure you have all those features.

If you are going to make large prints from your shots, then you'll want to have at least a 5 Mega-pixel version. These will cost between $600-1,000. (They're making 10-12 mega-pixel versions now!)

If you're only ever going to show pictures on a lap-top or to your TV set then you don't really need all those extra expensive Mega-pixels. More Mega-pixels means the photo can be printed larger without losing the crispness and focus of a clear image. (that means higher "resolution" - see the article above!)

I don't really have a favorite brand. I've seen some FUJI models demonstrated that are very good, easy to use and good price-ranges, and some cameras come with all sorts of computer add-ons you might or might not need/use. I have a NIKON that I really like, but Canon gets high ratings too.

If you're interested in seeing the options out there, and you're not intimidated by a salesperson trying to sell you something, I'd recommend walking into your local Camera shop, and asking them to show you the various levels of digital cameras. They're usually very knowledgable and friendly. I didn't buy mine there, but they were very helpful in showing me the various options, styles, and you can feel how heavy it's going to be!

When you're ready to BUY, take note of the exact model name and number and shop for the best price online at sites like :

Make sure you get an extra memory card at the highest quantity you can. It's worth it to have a 1GB card in the camera to swap for the dinky little 32MB one that might ship with the camera. Also an extra battery is a good idea, when you're on a trip and the battery goes, you don't want to wait several hours for it to recharge.
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