10 Techniques to Improve Your Digital Photography

Today’s digital cameras provide a significant improvement over those of even a few years ago. Even in ‘auto’ mode they can capture great images. This class refreshes some elemental photography techniques and builds on them, extending to research techniques you can use from the genealogical library to the graveyard. Among other topics, attendees will learn methods to use a camera in place of a scanner, capture microfilm images, and maximize graveyard photography.

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• Tom’s latest book, iPhonetography, is 150 pages of full-color photographs and “through-the-lens” illustrations that demonstrate staging, composition and lighting. You’ll learn how to transform your iPhone into a versatile camera, plus how to quickly and visually set the best exposure—and get the best shot possible.
• Tom is the lead architect for My Life Story, an initiative to find a fun and easy way to help people record their personal and family memoirs. Tom spent two and a half years developing the My Life Story interview by speaking with hundreds of people from all ages and walks of life.
• Digital Photography: Basics and Concepts helps beginning through intermediate photographers understand their digital camera equipment and improve their style and composition. This book helps everyone take fewer snapshots and shoot more photographs.
• Artistic Zing! for Photoshop is Tom’s secret treasure chest of Photoshop tools. Geared to Photoshop users with a basic understanding of the program, it builds on his first two Zing! books while moving into artistic expression with attention-getting techniques. Many consider this book comparable to his master’s thesis on Adobe Photoshop.
• Hyperstimulation: Teens, Porn and Online Addiction, helping youth survive online life is co-authored with Craig Georgianna who holds a Doctorate in Psychology. This comprehensive book helps teens and their parents deal with and work through the harsh reality and consequence of porn and video game addictions.
• Written with Andy Pomeroy, Lock the Boogie Man Out of Your Computer is an updated and expanded rewrite of Online Privacy and Protection. Boogie Man is an easy-to-follow checklist to family Internet security. This fun-to-read book presents methods to stay safe on the Internet.
• Family History Publishing Basics and Scanning and Photo Retouching Basics are geared to demystify much of the technical jargon surrounding image acquisition and publishing basics. Topics include resolution, descreening, font choices and margins.
• Make Your Photos Zing! is Tom’s step-by-step guide to mastering Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements and make it easy to retouch and improve the photos you’ve always wanted to fix. Rather than focus on what each tool does, this book employs a project-centric approach to explaining the program.
• Dead Men Tell No Tales is a comprehensive how-to for recording and publishing your family’s oral history. This book and CD combination present a series of forms to help organize and itemzie the stories and heirloom you have collected for your loved ones.
• Save An Hour A Day On Your Computer helps eliminate the frustrations often encountered with using your computer. Tom shares his twenty plus years experience with Microsoft Windows and straight-forward techniques to help improve user efficiency. Some of the topics include backing up, defragmentation, screen resolution and keystroke commands.
• Make Your Photos Really Zing!, continues where his first Zing! book leaves off and teaches the techniques to restore, retouch and modify color photos. This Zing! book includes compositing techniques as well as a number of detailed photo recontruction examples to help you improve the quality of your scanned images.
• Taking Picture-Perfect Pictures helps photographers overcome the problems few people think about until they get the print back from the photo lab.

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