Photography is fun. Interesting. Sometimes even rewarding. More and more people begin to realize that, and the opportunity’s Internet offers to showcase their photo creations. And WordPress is an excellent platform to showcase photos – because of the flexibility and well documented stability, and the huge amount of specialized plugins and themes.

To set up a photo gallery on WordPress you could use some of those nice gallery plugins – or, by using a specialized gallery or photo blogging theme, sometimes simply referred to as Multi Media Themes. Whatever solution you prefer, you sure will have a huge and very exciting selection to choose from – it shouldn’t be a problem to find a photoblog solution that suits you exactly as you wish.

Cashrevelations presents six WordPress photoblog solutions that are free and relatively easy to set up even if you know more about photo than WordPress or blogging.

3 WordPress Photo Plugins

Plugins is a good solution if you don’t feel for changing the appearance of your WordPress blog. There is a lot to choose from, but we would like to mention these three. We could also have mention Cincopa For WordPress, an excellent media plugin – but there could be some fees involved. The Best WordPress Gallery Plugins is a nice post that offers you some reviews and guidance of a few more good WordPress photo gallery plugins.

Yet Another Photoblog
This is a non invasive and handy plugin that will convert your WordPress blog into a full featured photoblog. Easy image upload and on the fly thumbnail generation, self-learning EXIF filter (your cameras tags can be viewed) are some of the features of this plugin.
View Demo

oQey Gallery
oQey Gallery is a Plugin for WordPress that lets users create and manage flash slideshows with a non-flash version of gallery built-in for all non-flash browsers and mobile devices like iPhone / iPad / iPod etc. It has a built-in skinnable slideshow and supports music.
View Demo

NextGEN Gallery
NextGEN Gallery is a full integrated Image Gallery plugin for WordPress with a slideshow option. You can add custom templates for your theme and watermark images – the plugin offers you lots of options that will make it easier for you to get a gallery after your taste.
View Demo

3 WordPress Photoblog Themes

To say there is a lot of WordPress themes is an understatement. There is a little bit less good photo-blogging themes, but still a huge amount – and since the WordPress platform is so flexible, you can with some basic coding skills easily adapt almost any WP theme for photo blogging. We feature these three, because these three represent an adequate and good alternative and also because we think they are not so well known.

Autofocus+
This is a simple and cleanly designed WP theme especially developed for photographers. Theme options that enable you to customize elements of the theme without touching code. This photo blogging theme comes in a free or paid version.
View Demo

Grace
Grace is a contemporary and minimalistic photoblog theme for WordPress – the calm color scheme and big frame put your photos right at the center of the blog and the viewers attention. To use the theme you have to change a few settings on your WP blog.
View Demo

Foto Folio
This is an easy to use and stylish WordPress portfolio theme for photographers, or others interested to showcase their visual works – this light WP theme has Jquery and automatic resize integrated for Featured Photos and Image Previews.
View Demo

All three themes are free for download without any previous registration and released under GPL license. For more information about GPL license: A Quick Guide to GPLv3.

Head Image: Joanna Margueritte

For all those who think Photshop is a splendid and amazingly competent graphics editing software, but far too expensive for one’s tormented economy – there is GIMP. GIMP is a free graphics editor – primarily used as an image retouching and editing tool, but it is also an easy accessible path into the amazing and magic world of graphics.

The development of GIMP began in the mid of 1995 by Peter Mattis and Spencer Kimball at the University of California, and the first release of GIMP saw its light in January 1996.

But more important for us, it is free and it is competent – and you can with a bit practice and relevant guidance create stunning image effects, apart from usual tasks like resizing, editing and cropping photos, converting between different image formats and more.

Cashrevelations.com presents a short introduction into the free GIMP multi-platform photo manipulation tool – suitable for a wide range of image manipulation tasks, including photo retouching, image composition, and image construction.

The Downloads – The Official Channel

GIMP software can be downloaded for free (and without any type of irksome registration) from the official GIMP web site, and it is also available for most usual operating systems (including MS Windows, Apple’s Mac OS X and Linux) and in most major languages.

If you use Windows you are recommended to download an installer – there are installers by Jernej Simončič and you can download them from Installers for GIMP for Windows.

The GIMP Basics – How To Use GIMP

Before getting into advanced image effects, you need to learn the basics of GIMP. You can find a lot of GIMP tutorials of various quality on Internet. One such tutorial is Really basic photo editing with GIMP by Matt McIrvin, it has a few years on the neck but most of the information is still relevant – a similar resource is the Gimp User’s Manual which is orientated towards Linux users. And last but not least the basic tutorials on Gimp.org.

But the most outstanding resource to learn mastering GIMP is of course the Official GIMP User Manual, and there is a great possibility that it also exists in your own language. A great complementary resource is Gimper.net – it is a GIMP community with almost seven thousand members, and they have a nice support section where you can get help and ask about almost everything related to GIMP.

YouTube offers an incredibly wide range of GIMP video tutorials in many languages, both for advanced users and beginners. Personally I think it feels like a bit easier to study a video tutorial than to read a tutorial and many with me prefer video tutorials. The optimal GIMP tutorial has both text, images and a pedagogical high resolution video.

There are two channels on YouTube we would like to recommend if you are interested of how to use GIMP. GIMPtricks have the aim to cover most of the GIMP basics while also making some hopefully cool tutorials for more advanced users, and GimpKnowHow with some interesting GIMP tutorials. These channels are inspiring and good examples on what type of helpful GIMP tutorials you can expect to find on YouTube.

GIMP Resources – Brushes, Extensions & More

The greatest resources you can have when using GIMP (or any image editing software) are your imagination and entire devotion, but apart from that, some additional resources like brushes and extensions can make your digital art creation so much easier.

The GIMP Plugin Registry is a repository of entirely optional extensions for the GIMP photo manipulation software. This registry allows you to browse through the available content and download practical source codes. Some examples of extensions you can find there are Shadow Recovery, Shadow Glow and EZ Perspective. See more popular plugins.

deviantART is the largest online social network for artists and art enthusiasts. They have a lot of free GIMP resources created by highly motivated and skillful community members.

One site worth visiting is Gimpology with a large collection of GIMP resources and tutorials – and above that, many web development and design sites (for example Creative Nerds or HullDO) have excellent articles with GIMP related resources. There is really not a problem to find resources to the GIMP, and most of the resources have the good characteristic to be entirely free of charge, or in some cases, very cheap.

Summary – Why You Should Use GIMP

Photshop is a wonderful software. But if you don’t have the money to pay the price and still have vivid dreams to be able to work with graphics or even digital art, then GIMP is a free, potent and highly motivated community supported alternative for you.

With a bit practice you can create amazing image effects, apart from usual tasks like resizing, editing and cropping photos and much more only limited by your own fantasy.

And there is a lot of tutorials, brushes and other resources you can download for free and even without registration – and almost most important of all, you will never be alone with your creative ideas. There is always a community behind you to support you through all stages of your creative development. Those are a few good reasons to use GIMP.

Time for a new and fresh roundup on some of the very best and most useful online photo editing sites. It seems like those sites get more and more advanced every moment, and it is impressing what good results you can achieve nowadays. Personally I prefer a solid and effective software on my old PC, but I can not deny that I do more and more often use those online services because of the simplicity and time issue. And as always, for some, it is also a question of economy and interest. Software cost. Some of them cost a lot, and if you don’t have the true interest, then it feels pretty tough to pay the price.

Photoshop - Online Photo Editing And Sharing

Cashrevelations.com presents 10 useful, effective and free photo editing websites. With these sites you can easily achieve good and acceptable images for your blog or website.

10 Photo Editing Websites

1. Photoshop – Online Photo Editing And Sharing
Online and free version of Photoshop by Adobe with scaled down features. Upload, edit, organize, store (up to 2GB free) and share your photos. It requires registration, but the process is simple. The Photoshop service has an extensive and useful help library.

2. Picnik – Edit Photos The Easy Way, Online In Your Browser
Easy to use photo editing tools. Tweak to your heart’s content, then get creative with oodles of effects, fonts, shapes, and frames. You can fix your photos in just one click or use advanced controls to fine-tune your results.

3. Pixlr – Photo Editor Online
Pixlr is a free online photo editor. You can edit, adjust and filter your images without any registration. The photo editor is built in Flash and you need to have a Flash plug in (get flash) to get it to work. Fairly easy to use and a good help library.

4. Phoenix – Free Online Image And Photo Editor
From basic image retouching to more complex effects, Phoenix delivers the key features of a desktop image editor with the simplicity and accessibility of a web-based application. Work with layers, groups, and layer masks. Intuitive drag and drop interface.

5. FotoFlexer – Online Photo Editor
FotoFlexer is an advanced online digital photo editor. It performs some advanced effects previously only available to professionals using expensive software. All the common basic functionalities – remove blemishes, change skin and hair color, morph photos and more.

6. Free Online Photo Editor – Edit Your Photos And Images Online
Resize your photo, sharpen it or rotate your photo. Several filters and effects are available to enhance your photo: Red Eye Removal, Sepia, Enhance, Sharpen and Polaroid Effect. You can also add Text and Glitter text to your photos and images.

7. Splashup – Photo Editing Tool And Manager
Splashup, formerly Fauxto, is a photo editing tool and photo manager. It’s easy to use, works in real-time and allows you to edit many images at once. Runs in all browsers and integrates seamlessly with photo-sharing sites. You can also save your work in progress.

8. FlauntR – Free Online Photo Editor With Printing And Slideshows
Photo editing features similar to photoshop. Store and share your photos online, create slideshows and print photos digitally online. This site features everything between funny one-click effects, to more advanced editing such as hue and brightness adjustments.

9. Picture2Life – Edit, Collage, Animate And Share Photos Online
Feature packed and intuitive user interface allows you to preview effects before applying them on your images. Over 50 different, fully customizable, effects and adjustments for you to choose from. You can also create collages and animated gif’s.

10. DrPic – Free Web Picture Editor And Image Host
Basic functionality like sharpen, crop, resize, brightness and contrast adjustments, add text and special effects. You can also host your pictures online for free at DrPic. Not so advanced like some of the editors above, but very easy to use.

Of course you can find more online photo editing sites if you do a search, some more or less competent. But this is our selection, and we select some more advanced and some very basic and simple to cover the needs of users of all knowledge levels.

All the image editing websites presented here are free – but some of the sites might offer premium features. And Cashrevelations.com is not affiliated with any of these sites.

What method could be better than a nice photo if you want to put some beauty to your blog or web page. But often when I search through my photos after those nice ones, I realize what an aesthetic catastrophe my image collection is. For some reason, the images have a tendency to be gloomy and boring. Hours of heavy image searching just leads to despair (not really, but almost). One of the most time consuming tasks for bloggers and designers is to find suitable photos. A free stock photography site will be a welcome relief for any Internet entrepreneurs tormented nervous system.

Wikipedia: Stock photography is the supply of photographs licensed for specific uses. It is used to fulfill the needs of creative assignments instead of hiring a photographer.

Cashrevelations.com presents 10 Free Stock Photography sites where you can find high quality images and illustrations you can use for your articles or webdesign.

Instead of showing you screen shots of the stock photography sites we choose to show an example image from their collection. To acknowledge the photographers and also the different stock photo sites we link the photos directly to the original image source.

Again, remember to acknowledge the artist’s efforts and credit the photographer in a suitable way. That is common business etiquette and simply humanly decent.

10 Stock Photography Sites

1. morgueFile – Free Stock Photos
The morguefile contains photographs freely contributed by many artists to be used in creative projects by visitors to the site. Free high resolution stock photographs and reference images for corporate or public use. No registration required.

2. Wikimedia Commons – Public Domain & Freely-Licensed Media Content
Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed media content to everyone, in their own language. This is another favorite with a huge amount and variety of quality images. No registration required.

3. stock.xchng – Free Stock Photography Site
Stock photography community – browse stock.xchng’s huge gallery for high quality stock photos or share yours with others. This site is one of my personal favorites and I can sincerely recommend them as a source of images and inspiration. Registration required.

4. FreePixels – Free High Resolution Stock Photos
FreePixels offers free high resolution stock photos for use in both personal and commercial design projects. Almost 4,000 images are featured in 40 categories, but there is no image updates since August 2009. No registration required.

5. ImageBase – Free Images
ImageBase by David Niblack provides you with free images you can use for whatever you want – personal, commercial and non-profit. The ImageBase site also offers various nice and free PowerPoint Templates. No registration required.

6. Free Stock Photography – A Digital Dreamer
FreeStockPhotography by A Digital Dreamer offers you both free and royalty free stock photography. The main site also has some information and articles for those interested in graphic design, animation and photography. No registration required.

7. Stockvault – Free Stock Photos And Free Images
Stockvault.net is a stock photo sharing website where designers and photographers can meet to share their stock photos and images. All images on Stockvault.net are free for personal and non-commercial usage. No registration required, but advised.

8. The Library Of Congress – Flickr
The Library of Congress has over 8 000 stunning images from their collection on Flickr. Represented here are legendary photos and photographers like Dorothea Lange (with the photo Migrant Mother), Jack Delano and Walker Evans. No registration required.

9. Every Stock Photo – Search Engine
Search engine for free stock photos and clip art for the stock photography community including images of creative commons and public domain and other free licenses. The images come from many sources with the license specified. No registration required.

10. Photogen – Free Stock Photos And Images
Search and download free stock photos in high resolution of animals, agriculture, nature, architecture, backgrounds, concepts, transport, travel and destinations, business and industry – free for commercial and personal use. Registration required.

There is one thing you must not forget if you want to use images from the sites above: read the Terms of Use carefully and do not break them with intention. If you do want to use them in any other way that the license allow, contact the administrator of the site or the photographer or author and ask for permission. Better to be safe than sued.

[Press Release] Canon introduced a digital camera in the beginning of this month: the Canon EOS 7D Digital SLR camera. Far more than a slight improvement from a previous model, the EOS 7D DSLR is a brand new product that stands on its own with new features never before seen in any Canon camera.

The Canon EOS 7D boasts significant EOS advancements including a completely new 19-point Autofocus system, a new Canon iFCL Metering System (Intelligent Focus, Luminance and Color) and a brand new Intelligent Viewfinder.

An 18-megapixel Canon CMOS sensor and Dual DIGIC 4 Imaging Processors fuel the EOS 7D’s 14-bit A/D data conversion and ability to freeze motion in high-resolution with eight fps continuous shooting up to 126 Large JPEGS using a UDMA CF card.

The EOS 7D captures low-light images with or without a flash thanks to a wide range of ISO speed settings from 100-6400 (expandable to 12,800). In addition to its new still capture capabilities, the EOS 7D features Full HD video capture at 1920 x 1080 resolution with selectable frame rates of 24p, 25p or 30p.

The EOS 7D’s New Autofocus System

The completely re-designed system includes a new multi-axis cross-type 19-point AF grid, where the focusing points are evenly spread out across the image plane and clearly displayed through Canon’s new Intelligent Viewfinder.

All 19 points are f/5.6-sensitive for both horizontal and vertical cross-type focusing, while the center AF point adds high-precision diagonal cross-type sensitivity for f/2.8 and larger aperture lenses.

The Canon EOS 7D’s AF system allows numerous AF area selection modes:

• Spot AF mode reduces the size of a single AF point to focus on small subjects like an animal in a cage.
• AF Point Expansion mode uses a cluster of AF points adjacent to the selected AF point to automatically assist focusing on moving subjects, such as an athlete on the run.
• Zone AF divides the 19 AF points into five selectable focusing zones and makes it easier to achieve focus with subjects that are difficult to track with Single Point AF or AF point expansion.

Additional improvements include a revised Automatic AF point selection sequence that allows a user to pick any one of the 19 AF points as a starting point for tracking moving subjects in AI Servo mode.

For more technical details you can go to Canon EOS 7D product page.

More about Canon EOS 7D digital camera:

• Canon’s EOS 7D web page
• Canon’s new EOS 7D DSLR
• Canon EOS 7D – DPhotoJournal
• Canon EOS 7D release date and price
• Is the new Canon EOS 7D a Nikon D300s killer?

Magazine covers, website graphics or whatever you need for your website – You can do it with just few mouse clicks.

Cashrevelations.com collected 10 free photo editing services, which will help you to create some interesting graphics for your website.

BeFunky

BeFunky Photo Effects allow you to easily create artistic results (like cartoon, sketch, stencil and pop-art) from digital images without technical knowledge. These “one-click” photo effect options produce desired results effortlessly and each effect comes with the option to make simple adjustments.

Visit: BeFunky – Photo effects with one click, turn your photos into artwork

WriteOnIt

Create fake pictures, captions and fake magazines. You can for example make fake covers of Glamour, Time, Playgirl, Wired and Playboy. To get started just chose a type of picture you want to create and add image from your computer and click save.

Visit: WriteOnIt – Fake pictures

Big Huge Labs

Create motivational posters, movie posters, magazine covers, badges, mosaics, collages, calendars, frames, and more. Home of Motivator, a tool that lets you create a professional-looking poster that you can order as a large print or save to your computer.

Visit: Big Huge Labs – Do fun stuff with your photos

Picnik

Easy to use photo editing tools. Tweak to your heart’s content, then get creative with oodles of effects, fonts, shapes, and frames. You can fix your photos in just one click or use advanced controls to fine-tune your results.

Visit: Picnik – Edit photos the easy way, online in your browser

FotoFlexer

FotoFlexer is an advanced online digital photo editor. It performs advanced effects previously only available to professionals using expensive software. It can remove blemishes, change skin and hair color, morph photos and more.

Visit: FotoFlexer – The world’s most advanced online photo editor

Cellsea

Everything you need to complete the most common photo tasks. Rotate, resize and crop photos to get the exact composition and size you need. Over 15 ways to correct color, exposure and lighting problems. Cellsea also provides some nice photo effects.

Visit: Cellsea – Free Online Photo Editor

Pizap

piZap.com is a free online photo editor that allows you to upload digital photo pictures, paint, add funny graphics, fun easy effects, custom text, and then save a web ready JPG to your favorite website or to your computer.

Visit: PiZap – Free Online Photo Editor

Free Online Photo Editor

Resize your photo, sharpen it or rotate your photo. Several filters and effects are available to enhance your photo: Red Eye Removal, Sepia, Enhance, Sharpen and Polaroid Effect. You can also add Text and Glitter text to your photos and images.

Visit: Free Online Photo Editor – Edit your photos, pictures and images online

LunaPic

All the basic photo editing tools you need to do common photo tasks. Several effects are available to enhance your photo in a very easy way. Supported image and video types are GIF, JPG, BMP, PNG, AVI, MPG, FLV and RM and many more.

Visit: LunaPic – Online Photo Editor

FlauntR

Photo editing features similar to photoshop. Store and share your photos online, create slideshows and print photos digitally online. This site features everything between funny one-click effects, to more advanced editing such as hue and brightness adjustments.

Visit: FlauntR – Free online photo editor with printing and slideshows

The photo editing sites are not in any particular order. Witch one is best – You decide after your own mind, taste and needs. They are all free, at least on the basic level. Some of the sites might offer premium features.

Cashrevelations.com is not affiliated with any of these sites.