When Buying a Digital Camera: Do not waste your money on a Mavica (this was written several years ago when Mavica quality SUCKED BIT DONKEY DICKS). These cameras simply do not give decent quality pictures for posting on the Internet. Their maximum resolution is only 640x480 compared with a Kodak DC220–1152x1024, a Kodak DC260-265–1536x1024 or a Kodak DC290–1792x1200. Wally's Nikon gives a resolution of 2048x1536. With a higher resolution you have room to play with.  Room for cropping out unnecessary background material…. then re-sizing down to 640 dpi (for vertical pictures).  Downsizing also pulls the pixels closer together for better quality.  If you use a camera with a maximum resolution of 640x480 you have no room for error and have a very grainy appearance.  I recommend the Nikon 990 or the newer Nikon 995. A lady friend uses a Kodak DX 4330 with a high resolution of and she of course, recommends her camera. We do not recommend any cheap bargain basement cameras. Remember you get what you pay for. Taking pictures for the Internet, a good Digi-cam can now offer better picture quality than most scanned 35mm photographs.  Most people do not have the extra money to invest in a high quality digi-cam ($500- $1,000). However, do not waste your time and money by investing in a $150 - $200 camera. You get what you pay for and with a cheap digital your picture quality is going to be lousy. If you are serious about wanting to be on the Net (or put pictures on the Net) then a decent digi-cam is a very good investment.  For those of you trying to make money with a site, better picture quality will bring in more members. Even if you are sending pictures to post on web sites, they will pay a helluva lot more attention to good quality pictures. It is always good business sense to place some of those profits back into the business, so it is a good idea to occasionally upgrade your equipment to stay competitive in this dog-eat-dog business.
But, the finest camera in the world does you no good if you do not know how to use it or you do not take the time to learn how to use it. The key is.. Experiment.. Experiment..Experiment.. until you have decent pictures. Do not send anybody everything that comes out of the camera. (There really are people who do this, more than you may imagine). 
NOTE:  The prices of digital cameras have drooped drastically over the past few years.  What used to cost around a thousand bucks in '01, costs less than four hundred now. 

Don't skimp on Quality: Some people do not take the time to set the resolution to HIGH or BEST.  By taking pictures at a lower resolution, you may be able to get more pictures to the card, however you will not be getting the best quality that your camera has to offer.  Why spend the money on a decent camera if you are not going to utilize what it has to offer?  If any of you take pictures to send to us make sure they are shot with high resolution (not good or better). Send them to us right out of the camera.  For those of you who have to use a 35mm ensure you have enough lighting and once again make sure you fill the viewfinder with your subject, not a lot of meaningless background. 

Center the Subject: No matter which kind of camera you choose, learn how to get the subject in the center of the picture. Get into the habit of turning the camera sideways to suit the subject's pose. Remember, standing is vertical and lying down is horizontal. Very simple huh? You would be surprised how many people take every picture while holding the camera in just one position (mostly for wide shots). Just use some common sense. Look through the viewfinder on every shot and ask yourself, “Is this the kind of picture I’d want to see?”---“What can I do to make the picture better?” Take your time when taking pictures. 

Picture Size: A lot of us have 17” monitors (some have even larger ones) however, most of the surfers are still using 15 inch ones. This means that their screen resolution is probably 800x600. I don't know about you but when I pull up a picture I hate to scroll to see the whole thing. Soooooo…..my general rule is to have pictures on our site that are 640 to 650 pixels high and 700 pixels wide. By the same token, I don't like the smaller pictures either (those that are no more than 320-400 high or wide).  Do not send me video captures as the video-cap technology is a LONG way from being acceptable to post and forget about Polaroids!

Editing/Processing Your Pictures: 03/31/06 - Since first authoring this tips page, I've learned that using ACDSee 6.0, 7.0, 8.0 and 9.0 do 90% of the things I need to do with pictures.  I use it only for the vast majority of picture editing I do.  When I finish cropping and re-sizing, I save it at 75% which gives pretty damned good quality.  You can also lighten, darken and play with the "exposure" 'til you get it where you want it.  It takes a good bit of experimenting, but in the end it's a lot quicker than Adobe or PSP.  A lot cheaper, also!!!
I used to use  two programs to work pictures with, Adobe PhotoShop 5.5 & 6.0 and PaintShop Pro 7. About 90% of what I used to want to do was accomplished with just Adobe PhotoShop. I mostly use PaintShop Pro for saving the pictures because the quality is better when saved compressing only 15%. The first thing to do is crop anything out of the picture except the subject.  Then downsize the picture til it is 1024 or 900 pixels high (for vertical shots) or 1024 or 900 pixels wide (for horizontal).  Experiment with the “Contrast and Brightness” to better the picture quality when saved compressing only 15%. This helps when the pictures are a little dark. Brightness will brighten the picture, such as a flash would do. It is vitally important to learn functions of these tools: Brightness, Burn, Contrast, Color Balance, Levels, Sharpen and Blur.  Then see if your picture quality can be improved. Sometimes even the “Sharpen” can improve the picture, however it can also decrease the quality at times so be very careful. With PaintShop and PhotoShop you can “undo” mistakes so, once again experiment, experiment, experiment!!!  Save your pictures as .jpg at 75%- to 85% compression. There are some out there who save at 70-75% which makes the kb size lower however, the quality is much poorer. Important!!! A digital camera can be very unforgiving when it comes to any kind of blemishes, zits, bruises, bags under the eyes, etc., even those which aren’t that obvious in person. The pixels in a digital picture will catch all of those age spots scratches, “hail-damage”, “craters”, every stretch mark you have etc. However, on DixieCuties, the members prefer to see natural, all woman, real woman pictures. Do NOT not get carried away with airbrushing-type tools or the picture will look to phony.  The husband of a woman who was on the net several years ago (NetXLaura) really over did the enhancing to the point that she looked ridiculously phony.

Adobe PhotoShop Pro can cost as much as $600.00 PaintShop Pro (from Jasc.com) costs around $100.00.
ACDsee  pro photo manager runs $129.00 and you can get it here http://www.acdsee.com/.  This is the way to go for about 95% of the things you'll want to do with your pics.
Another good thing about ACDSEED is that it's an excellent photo viewer.. far surpasing whatever your computer system uses.

*****
Never Get Rid of the Originals: I realize that they take up hard drive space however, you must find some way to always save the original (raw) pictures. You can burn CD’s or put them on zip discs, but save them. This means that when you work a picture and it is ready to be saved, save it as something different, thereby not overwriting your original.  For instance, say the original picture is Img000786.jpg. Then you save the worked picture as Img00786b.jpg. I have the original of every signal picture from every single shoot I've done since my very first photo shoot.  The main reason is that you never know when you may want that original for some reason or other. Whether it's to make a graphic or to possibly rework some where down the road when you've learned more and become better at working pictures.

The Tags:  Lose the tags in/on the panties and bras. It just looks tacky as hell to have a great picture ruined by seeing a damn tag sticking out from the garment(s). If they are sheer panties and the tag is on the inside if is still visible (sheer.. get it?).  I'm sure you can remember your own size so get out the ole razor blade and lose the tags!!!!

Lighting:
This is the most difficult part of any picture taking, however it is the most important. Make sure that you have enough lighting. Incandescent lights will make many, if not all of your pictures have a yellowish tint. For my photo shooting, (using my Nikon) I use a bounce flash.  I bounce the light off the ceiling at a very slight angle toward the subject. Make sure your lighting is not behind your subject! Never shoot with sunlight, open or uncovered window or other bright lighting behind the subject.  The only exception to this is natural daylight which is the very best lighting, and if used wisely (and behind the photographer) can do much to improve the quality of the picture. Experiment, Experiment, Experiment.  That is the beauty of using a digital camera, you can see the picture almost right away instead of waiting for pictures to be developed.  I use the Vivitar 285HV flash because I can adjust the flash from 1/16th to ½.  Outside shooting can be even more frustrating. Always shoot with the sun on the subject, not coming from behind the subject. Early morning and late afternoon afford the best outdoor lighting, making colors even better. Noon time or mid-day, is the absolute worst time to try outdoor shooting. 

Backgrounds:  Straighten up the shooting area!!!  After all if you’re shooting in your  home do you want people to think you live like a slob? I have seen many pictures that were great shots except that they had clothes strewn all over the floor and everywhere else. Also here is a tip, if you would rather keep your family life private and not let some of those stalkers know that you have children then get all the kids play stuff out of sight!!! Get pictures showing family members out of sight!! Use some common sense because you can not be to careful these days. Instead of blurring the pictures, take them off the wall and off the shelves. Blurring is tacky. Constantly be aware of what is in the background.

Couches, Bedspreads, etc.: Pay special attention to what your subject is on or the type of wallpaper that is in the background! Sure, a flowery bedspread can be pretty however, it will also detract from your subject and distract the eyes of the viewer. Stay away from anything that is striped, patterned or checker-board ...whether it be a bedspread, or couch fabric. Remove it or use a sheet as a cover or a backdrop.  Print bedspreads and flowery wallpaper and blades of grass or tree leaves or lots of gravel or rocks are your KB enemy.   They will jack up the kb size of your picture faster that you can drop your drawers in lust.  Avoid those backgrounds at any cost.. or at least try to get more of your subject in the picture.. thereby getting less of the shit that eats up kbs.

KB Size:  Of pictures is very important on the Net. Every server has what is called “bandwidth” considerations.  The larger the KB size of your pictures the more bandwidth they eat up, costing your server money. Things that greatly contribute to high KB size are: blades of grass, trees, dirt, patterns on bedspreads, couches, chairs, walls. Have as little as possible in the picture with your subject. 

Colors NOT to Wear: In person a woman wearing a slinky black dress, bathing suit or other apparel can be very alluring and sexy. However, in a picture black or dark colored clothing is not good. The camera simply does not allow you to appreciate all the curves and crevices. So much is lost that deprives the viewer of seeing all of you and your body in all its glory. Also, white can be a real bug-a-boo depending upon what part of the body the camera is focused upon. If the camera is focused on a white skirt or blouse then the skin that is showing can turn out very dark, or the white material will look washed out. I can never say this enough.. EXPERIMENT.

What to Showcase: If you are a woman, or you are taking pictures of a woman to submit to anybody's site then listen to me! Showcase her best attributes. If that best feature is the tits the, by all means take LOTS of tittie pics from all angles and include several close-ups. By the same token, if your best ASSet is your ASS then SHOW ME THE ASS!! Too many women with luscious asses, have very few pictures taken which feature their butts. There are girls all over the Net with beautiful curvy asses (which is the very best part of their anatomy). However, out of a set of 12-14 pictures you will be lucky to find more than two good ass shots if that many. Even some of those may not be flattering because they persist on bending over, or sticking it out, instead of letting us enjoy the natural curvature of it. In any event, please showcase your best feature when taking pictures or having your picture taken. You know whether it's your ass or titties. If you're going to send out a picture as a sample of what your wife's (or sister's or girlfriend's) butt looks like, PLEASE PLEASE ….. DO NOT send a picture of her bent over or on her knees with her ass staring at the camera with half of her legs cropped out. The first pictures you send should be pictures of her standing in a natural-like pose from rear to side so that the curvature of her butt can be truly appraised. 

Don't Try to Be Too Cute: Innovation, creativity and experimentation can be good, but only after you have mastered the basic art of producing quality pictures. In other words, stay the hell away from special effects like sepia, gray scaling, bordering and other things your li’l mind may try to dream up in an attempt to make your pictures look different from everybody else’s.  LEARN THE BASICS and perfect them. Different is rarely better. Concentrate on producing the finest quality pictures you can and this can only be attained by practice, practice, practice!

I really and truly hope that some of these tips will be helpful for you. But reading them will do you no good unless you put them into practice.
Wally