俗话说，不想当元帅的士兵不是好士兵。不想得奖的摄影爱好者不是@*($&*(@&$。云师是俺在这里很佩服的一 位不但作品好、而且人品也好的摄影高手。(请云师原谅俺在这里不称你为大师，原因俺以后会另外发帖子说明！)。还有一位能够比较一针见血点到问题实质的是 “车头”。希望各位今后多注意这二位的帖子和建议。U96说话比较直，和俺一样，但是多数时间说的还是比较到位滴。
对俺们这样的初学者来说，少走弯路，是最重要的。像前辈学习，是很重要的一个途径。但是前辈有很多种，风格也各不相同。因此，俺今天把俺压箱底的想法和各位(主要是初学者)吐血奉献一下。
小平同志生前教导我们：不管白猫黑猫，能抓住老鼠的就是好猫！俺借用一下他老人家的名言：灵活地应用在摄影上就是：不管前妻(期)后妻(期)，能得奖的就是好妻！因此，俺从一开始就十分注意各大网站、杂志关于对投稿竞赛作品的要求，深感受益匪浅。这里和各位分享一下国家地理杂志(NG)有关摄影作品的要求。同时要补充一句：所有进入NG候选获奖作品，必须提交原始的RAW file!
A message from the Director of Photography of National Geographic:
Please do not digitally enhance or alter your photographs (beyond the basics needed to achieve realistic color balance and sharpness). If you have digitally added or removed anything, please don't submit the shot. We look at every photo to see if it's authentic, and if we find that yours is in any way deceptive, we'll disqualify it.
DODGING AND BURNING: Dodging (to brighten shadows) or burning (to darken highlights) is OK, but it should be minimal. Do not overdo it. Your goal in using digital darkroom techniques should be only to adjust the dynamic tonal range of an image so that it more closely resembles what you saw. And don't oversaturate the color.SOLARIZATION, MEZZOTINT, DUOTONE, ETC.: No. If you use one of the myriad alteration "filters" available in your digital photo software, please stop.
BLACK-AND-WHITE IMAGES: OK.HAND-TINTED IMAGES: OK, but only if you're experienced in this art.
CROPPING: OK, if it makes the photo better.STITCHED PANORAMAS: OK, but only if the segments were all made within the same time frame. We don't want panoramas with sections made at significantly different times. Do not change focal length when you create a stitched image. Do not stretch the meaning of panorama to include elements that weren't in the scene as you saw it. If your entry is a stitched image, please indicate this in the caption. (A stitched panorama is created from multiple images, each taking in a different angle of view from the same position, then combined using digital techniques. It results in a wider view than can be achieved with most wide-angle lenses.)
FISH-EYE LENSES: OK, but enter at your own risk - editors tend to dislike such optical gimmicks.HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE IMAGES (HDRI): OK, but like panoramas, only if the combined parts are made at about the same time. We don't want final images where the foreground was shot at noon and the sky at sunset. If your entry is an HDRI image, please indicate this in the caption. (An HDRI image is created from multiple images of exactly the same scene, made rapidly but at different exposures, then combined using digital darkroom techniques. The final image, when done successfully, allows one exposure for shadows to be combined with another for highlights to produce a final image that has a greater dynamic range than is possible with a single exposure.)
Ben Canales sprawls in the snow under the starry sky above Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. Caneles's long-exposure photograph, made using a timer on his camera, is the winner of the 2011 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest.
