 I would like to share with you some valuable keys on how to take better indoor portraits and still life photographs. These are insider secrets I’ve learned over the past 33 years as an avid photographer. They aren’t something I learned in a class or studied at college. Rather, they are things that I’ve picked up along the way that have helped make me the successful inspirational photographer that I am today.
Key #1 – If you’re doing a portrait of a person or a still life of an object, always begin by paying attention to the background. What’s in the background? What is behind the subject? Ask yourself if the background is distracting for any reason. What is the lighting in the background like? Is it bright glaring light from the reflection of a car window, or is it a bright sky with too much light, or is it a bunch of junk in someone’s garage or living room? You have to learn to pay attention to what’s behind your subject because whatever it is, it’s going to be in your photograph, and there’s a high likelihood that it will be distracting. Once you observe the background, you must decide if it’s a distraction or not. If it is, then you need to either move your subject or you need to move and shoot the subject from a different angle. Do whatever you need to do to get rid of a distracting background. If you’re shooting a close up of a flower, you may need to bend an adjacent flower out of the way or break it off completely so that it’s not in the way. In summary, pay close attention to the background, and make sure that it is not distracting. This one simple key will save you from wrecking many good photographs.
Key #2 – The most important element in your photograph is the lighting. Ask yourself what the light is doing as you look through your viewfinder. Look for the highlights and the shadows and the midtones. Pretend you’re color blind and try to see everything through the tonal composition of black and white rather than color. Colors are deceiving. They capture your attention with their beauty, but they disguise what the light is doing in terms of highlights and shadows. Don’t let this happen to you. Learn to look past the colors and try to see the black and white and grey tones that they represent and are reflecting to your lens. A great photograph will have a broad spectrum of tones from very dark to very light, from true black to variations of gray to true white. The more variation of tones you are able to capture in the image, the better the lighting and contrast will be in the photograph. This is extremely important in black and white photography. It is equally important in color photography, but it’s easier for people to get away with less variations of tones because most viewers will be distracted by the colors.
Key #3 - One of the best kinds of light to use in portrait and still life photography is soft diffused window light. Let’s say you want to take a photograph of your grandson. Find a room in the house that has natural diffused light coming in through the window. Don’t use a room that has direct light coming through the window because that is too bright/strong. Instead, look for a window where indirect light comes in and diffuses throughout the room. That’s the best light to use for a portrait or a still life.
Key #4 – Your best friend should always be your tripod. Always take it with you wherever you go because you never know when you’re going to need it. In the above scenario with your grandson, sit him near the window on a chair where he’s comfortable and where he can sit still. Then set up your tripod, attach your camera, and check on the lighting in the room and on the subject’s face. Use your built-in light meter to measure the amount of light on the grandson’s face, and then adjust your aperture and shutter speed correctly. Remember key #1 and make sure there’s no distractions in the background. If you need to, hang a big blanket or sheet behind him to give you a neutral solid background that is not distracting and will actually enhance the subject. I forgot to mention that the reason you’re going to need a tripod is that the light will be low in the room. Using a tripod will keep you from shaking the camera and blurring the image. You will also need to make sure that your camera does not use the built-in flash to try to make up for the low light conditions. You may have to disable the flash so that you can take the photo without it. One more point, instruct your subject not to move when you take the photograph; otherwise, the image will be blurred.
Key #5 – Learn how to use your aperture and shutter speed in proper conjunction in order to control your "depth of field." You may be asking, "What in the world is depth of field?" Depth of field is simply how much of the depth of the photograph is in focus and how much of it is out of focus and blurred. In other words, depth of field is the zone of acceptably sharp focus surrounding the area actually focused on. Generally, when you are taking portraits or still life photographs, you want the background out of focus or blurred to some degree in order to enhance the sharp focus of the subject. Here’s what you will want to do to achieve this result. Begin by focusing on the eyes of the subject, in this case, the grandson’s eyes. This is the most important part of a person’s face that needs to be in sharp focus. Then decide how much of the subject’s head you want in focus. If you want to have the whole head in focus, then you should probably choose a middle aperture setting of around 5.6 or 8. If you decide you only want his eyes in focus, then you would create a narrow depth of field by using a lower f-stop of 2.8. On the other hand, if you wanted his whole head in focus and the piano behind him in focus, you would need to create a deep depth of field by using a high f-stop of 16 or 22.
In conclusion, there are several keys to taking high-quality indoor portraits and still lifes. Remember to always check the background and make sure it is not distracting. Then study the available light that you plan on using and try to see the image through black and white tones, highlights, and shadows. Find a room in the house or in the basement where there is soft diffused window light to use to light the face of your subject. Make sure to always use a tripod so that you can set the shutter speed at the correct slow speed to capture the available low light. Using a tripod will keep you from shaking the camera and blurring the image. And finally, learn how to use your aperture and shutter speed in proper conjunction to control your depth of field to get everything you want in focus and everything else out of focus. Take a lot of shots and have fun with various poses.
http://www.learndigitalphotographynow.com/
 Cannon is the name that is doing very well in the world of digital photography. There are many Cannon digital camera models that have set newer trends in the booming digital technology world.
Interestingly, Cannon Cameras are always in vogue. All Cannon models of digital cameras-an EOS or Powershot ones, have stood out quite well in the market and are best selling, till date. All the ranges of digital cameras introduced by Cannon in the last few years have become well renowned by now. Cannon digital cameras stand high on their unbeatable performance in the field of digital photography.
Cannon produces all types of digital cameras, from SLR to the compact ones. The unique position of Cannon as a manufacturer brand is because of its expertise in the field of both image capture and in image output solutions. I am discussing a few of Cannon digital camera models here. The info would greatly help you get the best-for-you Cannon digital camera from the market.
EOS 5D Cannon Digital Camera
The full frame, compact EOS 5D Cannon digital camera defines the new D-SLR range by Cannon. It is a 12.8 mega pixel EOS 5D camera including a CMOS sensor and a compact and lightweight magnesium metal body. It weighs as light as just 810 grams. It features the second generation CMOS sensor of 35.8X23.9 mm credentials. It can capture around three frames per second and large JPEG frame burst. The start up time taken by the camera is much low, only 0.2 seconds.
Cannon Digital IXUS 750
Cannon Digital IXUS 750 is a 7.1 mega pixel camera. It perfectly blends together the breathtaking designs with faultless engineering craft. It flaunts an exterior with exquisitely finish. It also has advanced features and precision optics that are able to deliver striking results to you. With its perpetual and sleek curve design, the Cannon Digital IXUS 750 has a metal body, which represents the height of Cannon’s design excellence. It can give you an enormous 7.1-mega-pixel resolution that can render best photo quality prints with great sharpness in A3+ size. The optical zoom ensures great framing and excellent clarity. It has DIGIC II processor guaranteeing fast and responsive camera performance and better image processing.
Digital IXUS 700
Digital IXUS 700 camera from Cannon has perfect quality and designer elegance. It epitomizes the commitment of Cannon to the excellence. It combines the spearhead technologies to get style right in your hands. The other remarkable features of this Cannon digital camera can be listed as: curved design, 7.1 mega pixels, optical zoom, Quick-bright or LCD night display, Hi-Speed, VGA 30 fps movies, 9-point AiAF or DIGIC II or USB 2.0, 14 shooting modes, colors editing, PictBridge compatible, Print and Share button. The Digital IXUS 700 camera works with unparallel performance and irresistible style. Cannon Digital IXUS 500.
The other model, Cannon Digital IXUS 500 is a camera ultimate in style and high performance. It has a complete metal body with 5.0 mega pixel sensor performance. The Digital IXUS 500 is a victory of optics precision, miniaturization and superb build quality. Its other striking features are compact metal body designer style, iSAPS and DIGIC technology, 3x optical zoom, 9-point AiAF, PictBridge, VGA movies including sound and Print and Share button.
The other popular models of Cannon digital cameras, supreme in all senses, are Digital IXUS 55, Digital IXUS 50, Digital IXUS 40, Digital IXUS 30, Digital IXUS i zoom, Digital IXUS i5 and Digital IXUS i. So go and make your Cannon Digital pick today.
http://www.learndigitalphotographynow.com/
 Taking a picture from a very high altitude is both a unique and fascinating aspect of producing airborne photos. Such pictures taken from an airborne location are known as aerial footage.
Background
Aerial footage can be taken above any place in the world from an airborne location, whether inside an airplane, balloon, satellite, paraglide or from other flight vehicles. The history of aerial photography goes back to 1858 when French airman, Nadar, introduced it for use it in war. During World War II, airborne footage was used extensively to locate enemy troops and to spy on their locations. This type of photography was also used to assess ground situations during battle, topography, and other circumstances around the world. Today, aerial spying has increased in its tactical prominence for helping on strategic battle grounds.
Advantages of Aerial Photography
Pictures taken from overhead locations can be very helpful in producing topographic maps for various locations in cartography, planning how to use a particular parcel of land, movie productions, international espionage, and environmental studies, just to name a few.
The proliferation of technological advances have paved the way for airborne footage as an important niche of photography. Progress in photographic capabilities has also enabled the use of aircraft models to gather terrain information through radio controlled aircrafts that can fly at low altitudes. It is even used for something as basic as real estate advertising. The reason for using radio controlled aircraft for advertising is because aircrafts piloted by people are not authorized to fly at low altitudes in populated centers It doesn’t hurt the decision-making process that these radio controlled aircrafts handle this responsibility very well.
Public Domain
Pictures taken from the air are normally considered as public domain because they are snapped in airborne locations which are viewed as public places. Such aerial photographs can be seen online.
One of the major search engines to provide an aerial view of locations is Google’s earth.com site. It zeros in on targets from satellites orbiting the planet. The service can be used to see places such as landmarks, water beds, and hotels. Best routes can be tracked down to specific locations all over the world. You can tap into 3 dimensional views of specific structures as well as tilt and rotate a building image, for example, by the click of your mouse. A person is also able to measure the distance between one city and another. If a road between two cities is under construction, browsing Google earth to identify an alternative means of travel to the desired location is an option.
Anyone interested in gaining a deeper knowledge about airborne footage can browse some of its basic materials at a nearby library. Additionally, much of the same information on aerial photography is also easily accessible on the Internet.
http://www.learndigitalphotographynow.com/
 Most of the times, the words and the music in an advertisement are rendered useless if they are not combined with an image. And to make an advertisement successful, the advertising photography has to be compelling – really really compelling. Be it TV commercials, magazine ads, the static promotions on the road or the banner ads on the computer screen, images rule the roost and have the immense power of driving people towards the product or buy the concept that is being promoted.
This is true, advertising photography has power that is incomparable. It has the ultimate capability of moving masses. Imagine there is something that someone wants to get done and he or she needs a group of people to do it – may be a group of ten people. The person can go to all the ten people and urge them individually and get the thing done. Now imagine, if the same person has to go to millions of people, would it be possible for him or her to go to every individual to pursue and urge them to do the activity?
Well, it is certainly possible for an advertisement, especially one with an impelling image – amazing advertising photography. Advertising photography derive such powers from the effect that visuals have on people. Human beings, though they need all the five senses to grasp a concept fully, however the visual impact seems to be the most powerful one. One that gives them the big picture of the concept or the product. When you see a product, in a way you touch it and you somehow know how would it feel like.
Do you still want to see the magic of Advertising photography? Think about the last McDonald’s ad, when the picture of Sausage Breakfast Burrito made your mouth water and feel hungry. Did you need words to tell you, its going to be delicious and saucy?
http://www.learndigitalphotographynow.com/
 The general purpose of under water photography is to bring sea life to the surface. Most people are curious about what lives underwater and what actually goes on beneath the ocean surface. Underwater photographers make it their mission to capture this hidden world on camera and bring to those people who will never get a chance to see it firsthand. The under water world requires a specific skills and techniques that are different from general photography skills.
The underwater world needs to be captured up close unlike wildlife photography for example. Since the water refracts and distorts images, the closer you are to your photography subject, the less distortion you will have. A great deal of patience is required for under water photography. You may be trying to take a photo a fish or dolphin, but than they suddenly swim away before you get a chance to. Also, water contains many particles like plankton that can cause the image to lose contrast and sharpness.
Using an underwater flash, or strobe, will help provide the proper lighting necessary for taking a great picture. Therefore, it is essential to use an underwater camera with a flash. This will help to bring in other colors and contrast them with the colors of the subject. A medium sized strobe is all that is necessary as a large strobe can end up getting in the way.
Composition is extremely important. The same basic rules apply as in regular photography, but you should shoot at an upward angle towards the subject. Because of the camouflage technique of most sea life, they tend to blend into their habitats. Since they do not stand out like this, they do not make good photographs. The key is to always try to get a clear shot whenever the subject blends into the ocean background.
If you are looking to improve your under water photography skills, you will first need to work on your photography on land. When you get to the point where you are taking great photos on land, than you can move into the more advanced world of underwater photography, where taking great pictures takes more patience and skill. Photography under water brings sea life to the surface which gives us more information about the mysterious marine world. If you are just beginning to have an interest in under water photography you should consider taking an underwater photography course to learn proper technique.
http://www.learndigitalphotographynow.com/
 If you have pictures where the foreground is too dark while the background seems to be correctly exposed, then using fill-in flash may be a technique worth learning about. Using fill-in flash, as the name implies, is to use flash to fill-in light where it is deficient. This is usually the situation when you are in the shadows and shooting through objects in the foreground that are acting as a frame.
A most pleasant effect can sometimes be achieved by photographing a person against the sun (or another strong light source). The light behind his or her head creates a halo around the edge of the hair. The face would be quite underexposed but for fill-in flash. Shooting against the sun also avoids your subject squinting in the sun.
To use fill-in flash, set your digital camera so that it is forced to fire the flash. Do not confuse with Night Shot scene mode which is similar but generally used at nigh time for night portraits. In this case the flash fires to illuminate the foreground, while the shutter remains open a while longer to expose the background. You need to keep the camera steady until after the flash has fired and the shutter has closed.
http://www.learndigitalphotographynow.com/
Great video which explains in simple terms what to look for when buying a digital camera:
 One of the major difference between a consumer digital camera and a digital Single Lens Reflex (dSLR) is that the former produces images with a lot of noise when using high ISOs and long exposure times, and the latter is practically noise-free. Noise is apparent by the presence of color speckles where there should be none. For example, instead of a blue sky, you notice faint pink, purple and other color speckles amongst the otherwise blue sky.
Why Are dSLRs Practically Noise-Free?
If it has not yet occurred to you to ask it, you should. Really, why are dSLR images almost noise-free? The answer is simple: a larger image sensor!
See, with a larger image sensor, each pixel can be larger and each photo site can be a bit further away from its neighbor (of course, there is an optimum distance beyond which we’ll have ‘gaps’). This extra distance is often enough to prevent signal leakage from one photo site onto another — hence much less to almost no noise!
http://www.learndigitalphotographynow.com/
 Why would anyone want to dial in an over or under exposure on purpose?
Because there are certain situations where the light meter of your digital camera can be fooled.
As an example, say you are taking a scene where there is an abundance of light around your main subject (for example, at the beach on a sunny day, or surrounded by snow). In this case, using Weighted-Average metering or Multi-Pattern metering, your camera might be ‘deceived’ by the abundance of light and expose for it by closing down the aperture and/or using a faster shuter speed (assuming ISO is constant), with the result that the main subject is under-exposed. By dialing in a positive exposure compensation, you are making sure that your main subject is correctly exposed — though the surroundings would be overexposed.
Another example would be going the other extreme where the surrounding is too dark, and the camera exposes for the lack of light by either opening up the aperture and/or using a slower shutter speed (assuming ISO is constant), then the main subject is over-exposed. By dialing in a negative exposure compensation, you would in fact be under-exposing the surroundings, but properly exposing the main subject.
Bracketing The Exposure
These are only two of the many situations where dialing in a positive or negative exposure compensation makes sense. In fact, many photographers will bracket their exposure when taking an important shot by taking one shot using the camera’s measured exposure, a second one at positive exposure compensation, and a third one at negative exposure compensation. This is called "bracketing your exposure" or simply "bracketing" and is a good technique to use whenever you need to nail a particularly difficult-to-expose scene.
Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB)
Instead of manually bracketing and taking the 3 shots as above, many digital cameras now include Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB) where the camera will take the three shots with one press of the shutter release button: one at the camera measured exposure, a second at a negative exposure compensation (usually -1/3 EV, though some cameras allow you to specify the amount), and a third at a positive exposure compensation (usually +1/3 EV, though some cameras allow you to specify the amount).
http://www.learndigitalphotographynow.com/
 Whatever your photographic genre of choice is, there is always admiration for candid photography. Candid photography is the art of catching people unawares in a photo. It doesn’t have to mean capturing them during a slapstick moment of falling over in the snow or something like that, it just means capturing people at their most natural. There is always a place for a well composed photograph with time taken over how the subject poses and smiles for the camera. For me that can never beat the capture of people falling around laughing at a joke or marveling at a sporting event. Here are six tips to taking good candid photographs.
Plan For Spontaneity
This may sound like a contradiction but it is a good idea to plan for spontaneity. What I mean is, think about the event that you are photographing. If you are at a friends birthday party, think about where most of the guests will be during the party and think about where you as the photographer can stand to take photos without being noticed. A lot of people stand in kitchens at parties to get away from the music so they can talk and tell jokes. Think about where you could stand and capture moments of spontaneity from the guests without drawing the dreadful posed "say cheese" kind of photographs.
Take Lots Of Photographs
Digital cameras with big memory mean that you have the ability to take a large quantity of photographs at no real cost to you. This is perfect for taking candid shots. Take as many photos as you can from many different angles and from many different zoom settings. From this you greatly increase your chances of getting some real gems.
Human Interaction
Some of the best candid shots I have taken have been when people are interacting with each other. It might be an animated conversation about politics or discussion of a book they have read. It could be a couple of children laying with a toy. The point is, human interactions result in some of the most incredible photographs.
Never Leave Your Camera At Home
This is a simple tip but probably the most important one. How many times in the past have you been out and about and seen something where you suddenly say to yourself, "I wish I had my camera with me". I know this has happened to me so many times. You don’t have to carry a big Canon Eos SLR with you all the time, just a good quality point and shoot digital camera will suffice for some good spontaneous shots. Don’t forget to take some spare batteries with you though!
Stealth Mode With a Long Zoom
For the ultimate in stealthy candid photography, use a camera with a long lens and hide behind some nearby trees or bushes. Paparazzi photographers use this technique a lot to take photos of celebrities in candid moments. You can use this technique to capture candid shots of friends and family also though.
If you truly want a rewarding experience then I urge you to try candid photography.
http://www.learndigitalphotographynow.com/
Next Page »
|
|
