Framing Your Photograph

February 5, 2010

Before you start your photography session take a few moments and observe the setting you are going to be shooting in. Check out the background: are there dark things in light places or light things in dark places? Squint while looking at the background to elimnate distracting light or dark spots.

Be particularly mindful of light or dark spots immediately behind your subject as these may draw the viewers eyes away from your subject. Check the 4 corners of your viewfinder before you snap a photo to make sure there is nothing in the frame that detracts from your subject. If you find something is distracting your eye, try moving to one side or the other for a different angle.

Negative Space

Negative space is that space which surrounds your subject, and the use of negative space makes use of simplicity, and can also enhance the story you are telling. Negative space is kind of like a blank wall with a picture hanging on it; there is nothing to detract the viewers eyes from the subject.

You can crop your images in a program like Adobe PhotoShop once you have taken your photograph, but it is much better to crop the picture with the camera before you take the picture. Look carefully through the lens and try to create a pleasing composition, while all the time looking for hot or dark spots.

Photographing Children

Always move your camera to the child’s eye level. This will eliminate lens distortion and when you photograph a child from above it will make their head appear larger than it really is. This is known as the big head little feet syndrome.

Never, I repeat never, crop of the hands or feet of the child when photographing them. Either crop in close to the head and shoulders or move back to include the whole body of the child. If you don’t you may wind up with an akward looking photograph.

Don’t Place Your Subject In The Center Of The Photograph

Generally speaking you will not want to place your subject in the dead center of the image, but rather apply the rule of thirds to decide where to place your subject. Leave plenty of room around the child, called growing room, as it is comforting to create a feeling of space.

Once again, be absolutely certain to make sure there is nothing distracting in the background that will draw the viewers eyes away from the subject. If you are shooting a side shot of the child, leave more space in front of them than behind them to give the appearance of some space for them to look into. The same applies if they are walking or running.

Use Frames To Frame

By this I mean look around and see if there is a doorway, a curving tree branch or some other object that you can use to frame the image of the child. Archways, walls and doors tend to add strength to a portrait, and helps the viewer understand scale.

Soft, circular vignettes can give your photograph a sense of comfort and safety, while a bold, rugged rectangle can add strength to the photograph. Making these decisions carefully will leave no doubt as to what you are trying to say.

Remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!

The Key To Better Digital Pictures

February 4, 2010

How Many Pixels Are Enough?

If you were to look through all of the ads for digital cameras you would think that the most important consideration in purchasing a digital camera was as simple as simply picking the one with the most pixels. Many people think that megapixels were the most important, in fact the only, factor to use in determining which digital camera to choose.

Where ever you look, print ads, tv ads or internet ads all seem to tout megapixels as one of the best features of the camera being advertised. Go to a local store and the salesperson will start right out by telling you how many megapixels this camera has.

Problem is, megapixels are NOT the most important consideration.

The Secret Is In The Sensor

Sensors are those computer chips that gather in the light through the lens and transform it into an image. Today, most camera sensors are identified by type, and the type is usually a fraction like 1/2.5″ or 2/3″.

Most point-and-shoot digital cameras have the 1/2.5″ type of sensor, and this sensor has an image sensing area of approximately 25 square millimeters. More expensive point-and-shoot cameras will use a 1/1.7″ or 2/3″ type sensor, which have an image sensing are of 40 square millimeters and 60 square millimeters of area, respectively.

The larger sensors commonly used today are in the DSLR (digital single lens reflex) cameras and are typically 1.8″, roughly 16 times the area of a 1/2.5″ type, or about 400 square millimeters.

Resolution and Pixel Size In Relation To Image Sensors

A larger sensor has the advantage of providing more megapixels of resolution than a smaller sensor. Now, megapixels are important because these are the small little bits of information which, combined with the rest of the pixels, make up your image. Most of the time more megapixels results in better resolution.

And here is where the rub comes in – in order for manufacturers to squeeze more megapixels into a point-and-shoot camera they have to make them smaller! Smaller pixels can actually hurt your picture quality. Think about it this way: if you have 2 cameras, a point-and-shoot camera and a DSLR camera, both with 10 megapixels of resolution, the size of the pixels created in the point-and-shoot camera could be 400 times smaller than those in the DSLR camera!

Why Larger Pixels Are Important

Think of each pixel as a bucket that holds particles of light, and pixels are created when you expose the sensor to light. After exposure the sensor measures the amount of light captured on each pixel. An empty pixel is black while a full pixel is white.

The color and brightness of your photograph is determined by the amount of light each pixel collects and how quickly it collects it. Small pixels fill up rapidly, often resulting in overexposed pictures. By contrast, larger pixels take longer to fill which gives the camera sensor more time to correctly expose both light and dark areas.

Because of this ability to capture more light it also means that they will produce photographs that are less subject to fuzziness or blurring.

So Is Bigger Always Better?

The biggest disadvantage of larger sensors is their cost, but they carry few disadvantages other than that. They also require bigger lenses to collect the light, but in return provide images that are easy to enlarge with little loss of resolution.

I hope all of this is a help, and when you get ready to purchase your next camera this information helps you to make a better choice.

Remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!

Canon PowerShot SD780 IS Camera Review

February 3, 2010

My son is a mechanic for a charter airline, and his job is one of being what they call a “roadie”. What this means is that he travels with the airplane because a lot of places they go in the world there are no mechanics, facilities or services. Often times he has to work on the aircraft out on the ramp.

He flies on Douglas DC-8s and Boeing 767s, and has been all over the world. Some time back he asked me to recommend a camera to him, and upon my recommendation he purchased a Canon SD PowerShot SD780 IS. As a novice photographer he has found the camera easy to carry and use, and has downloaded a number of photographs on the places he travels to.

Today he happens to have flown from Norfolk, VA to Gitmo (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba), and I am sure he will have some great photos to share with me when he returns. That little Canon 780 IS works very well for him, fitting easily into a pocket, easy to use, excellent image quality and a good battery life.

This wonderful camera may just be the slimmest ELPH yet, but it packs a lot of power. Its original design matches Canon’s most innovative camera technology, and even when the conditions for taking a picture are not ideal you have Canon’s technology on your side and you will be getting HD photos that are unforgettable.

The CanonUSA Customer Ratings for the PowerShot SD780 IS camera are as follows:

Pros

• Lightweight/Portable (109);
• Easty to use (104);
• Excellent image quality (97);
• gGood battery life (86);
• Nice features/settings (85).

Cons

• Poor low-light performance (27);
• Poor image quality (15);
• Complicated controls/menu (14);
• Missing features/settings (12);
• Short battery life (9).

Overall this little camera scored 5 stars from CanonUSA, Amazon.com and Adorama.com.

What’s In The Box

• PowerShot SD780 IS Digital ELPH Camera Body;
• Lithium-ion Battery Pack;
• Battery Charger;
• Wrist Strap;
• Digital Camera Solution CD-ROM;
• USB Interface Cable;
• AV Cable.

Ultra slim and a hip design in 4 vivid colors, this compact yet feature rich 12.1 megapixel dynamo with HD movie shooting capabilities and large, crisp 2.5″ LCD make this camera easy to use, handy to tote and priced to delight.

If you are looking for a great little point-and-shoot digital camera this Cannon PowerShot SD780 IS ELPH Digital Camera will serve you well.

Remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!

The Basics of Photography

February 2, 2010

Learn how to use your camera’s fundamental features so you’ll never again be disappointed with blurry, grainy, or underexposed results.

So you purchased a digital camera and have snapped a number of photos, but you are disappointed because the images are a little grainy, blurry or underexposed. You recall the glowing description of the incredible images you would be able to capture with their latest camera.

Well, there is no doubt that your digital camera is capable of capturing vivid detail. But if you don’t understand how to use your camera’s fundamental features, you may find yourself disappointed with blurry, grainy, or underexposed photographs.

You can easily avoid disappointment by acquiring a brief understanding of the photo four fundamentals of photography: aperture, shutter speed, film speed, and focus.

Lens Aperture

The camera’s aperture is the opening in the lens through which light passes and is captured by a digital image sensor. Aperture is called “f/stop,” and is calibrated in numbers. The larger the number, the smaller the lens opening, the smaller the number the larger the lens opening, just opposite of what our common sense tells us should be the case.

In some cameras the size of aperture is either fixed or adjustable, and it may be adjusted either manually or automatically. Combined with shutter speed it is the camera’s primary way of regulating the exposure of your photographs.

If the aperture setting is incorrect it can lead to photos that have been exposed to either too little or too much light. In most cases , low-light situations will require a larger aperture, while brighter light will require a much smaller aperture.

Another factor controlled by aperture is the depth of field your camera can capture. Depth of field is the distance in front of and behind your subject that is still in focus. A small aperture will result in a large depth of field and photos with more overall sharpness, while a large aperture (small f/stop number) will result in a reduced depth of field with the subject in focus but the background is blurry.

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed and aperture work hand-in-hand, and adjustments to your camera’s aperture will normally require a change to your shutter speed in order to ensure enough light reaches the digital image sensor to produce the proper exposure. Generally speaking, a large aperture setting will require a faster shutter speed to prevent overexposure, while a smaller aperture will require a slower shutter speed to avoid underexposure.

You can use your camera’s “Aperture Priority” mode to select the most appropriate aperture and let the camera calculate the best shutter speed to expose the image correctly. Aperture Priority settings are especially helpful where you want to control the depth of field of your photographs.

Shutter speed also has an effect on the sharpness of your photos. For example, fast shutter speeds will freeze motion and capture an image without any blur. If you just want part of the photo to be sharp you can choose a slower shutter speed and pan the subject which remains sharp while the background is blurry. This will give your photo a sense of motion.

If you want to take fast action shots you can use your camera’s “Shutter Priority” mode. The Shutter Priority mode lets you select the shutter speed and lets the camera choose the proper aperture. In some cases when you use slow shutter speeds a tripod will may be necessary to make sure that your images are not blurry.

ISO Settings

Sensor speed, also known as ISO, can make a big difference in your photos. ISO, denoted by an ASA or ISO number, describes how sensitive the sensor is to light.

With digital cameras ISO 100 is generally the normal setting, but can be changed to 200, 400, 800, and higher. A higher ISO number is equivalent to a greater sensitivity to light. In bright situations, a low ISO setting is appropriate, while in low-light conditions or fast-action photos higher ISO settings would be appropriate.

At the lower ISO speeds, your camera will produce sharper, more detailed images, but as you increase the ISO setting, your photos will become increasingly grainy. This loss of clarity is called image noise, and is the result of a greater light sensitivity and can be seen as random speckles in your photos. For the best results, use the lowest ISO you can while still getting enough light to get a sharp image.

Proper Focus

But none of this will matter at all if you don’t properly focus your photos. If you use the Automatic Focus function on the camera it will focus on the center of the subject. But you may prefer to focus off-center of the subject.

On some occasions you may want to photograph a subject close up, such as a flower. It could be difficult to focus your camera on a subject which is just a few inches away. If your camera has a macro setting it will allow your camera to focus on objects inches or even mere centimeters away.

Master Your Camera

Because today’s cameras have so many automatic setting it is often easy to capture a sharp photograph. But experienced photographers will tell you that learning to adjust aperture, shutter speed, ISO and proper focus will add significantly to the quality of your photographs.

Remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!

Composition 101

February 1, 2010

Imagine for a moment that you are taking your children on a day trip to the Henry Ford Museum, and you are excited to take some photographs of them at the first opportunity you have. But there’s a problem – there is a strange object in the background of the photograph sticking out of your kids head.

You need to be patient and take the time to compose a much better photograph, and if you do you will be much happier with the result. Carefully observe anything which is behind your child and make sure that whatever is there won’t interfere with the subject of your photograph – your child!

Feel The Energy

When you take the time to create a well composed photograph, anyone who looks at the photograph will experience the emotion and energy you experienced. In all forms of art composition is an important component, and photography is no different.

Composition of photos is a skill that can be learned with a little practice, and using the following tips and guidelines can greatly improve your photographs and how much you and others will enjoy them.

Experiment

To start with I suggest you take a photo, any photo. Then take a look at it on the LCD on the back of your camera. Now, shoot the same subject from different angles, then with different types of backgrounds.

Next, compare the images and observe which shot works best for you. Then, if you have time, experiment some more starting with the best shot you took and making slight changes in how you compose the photograph.

Stretch Your Creativity

Try taking different kinds of photographs. For example, if you are interested in photographing your children then try taking some landscape shots. Try taking a photo down an alley, or down a street, or between some buildings. Have your child sit on a stool with a dark background and practice some portraiture.

Use these photographs to discover how to use different perspectives and explore your own creativity.

Imagine Yourself As Someone Else

Get yourself out of your usual frame of mind by imagining yourself as a different person for a day. Imagine yourself as a doctor, a teacher, a little boy or girl or even a professional photographer!

Then take photos that would interest that person, that would be from their perspective, that they would see and imagine.

Get Some New Ideas

Easy – go to some art museums and look at the artwork, go to a photography exhibit and observe the photographs carefully, surf the web and explore other photographers websites, flip through photography magazines and brainstorm with fellow amateur photographers.

The Final Goal

What this exercise is all about is discovering your creativity, your personal perspective, your very own way of photographing your children. And as you explore, experiment and discover, you will find that you have a unique and interesting creative force within you to create incredible images of your children!

Remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!

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