Teaching My Husband Photography
July 13, 2010
In an interesting turn of events my husband has suddenly taken an interest in photography, much to my delight! And, on Sunday last, we went to the baptism of our latest grandchild, and he took the camera and snapped a number of photos, including some of our older children.
Earlier in the week he asked me to travel with him to Kalamazoo, MI to go to “The Air Zoo.” Not a difficult thing to do, because I am also a pilot and am always interested in airplanes. He wanted to learn how to take interesting photos of aircraft at the zoo to use on his website All Tings Aviation.
As we were working together he pointed out that I was not much of an instructor, having this deep seated desire to make all of the camera adjustments myself while explaining what I was doing. Oh – this is important – I met my husband when he taught me to fly airplanes!
Canon EOS 10D Digital SLR Camera
So all at once he gets real quiet. After some coaxing he tells me that I’m not much of an instructor, because I keep making the camera adjustments myself while telling him what I am doing. He told me that he would really prefer to make the adjustments himself when I explained what I thought needed to be done.
So, I backed off, and soon we were talking about aperture priority, exposure compensation, white balance and shutter priority. The trip home was fun, and much to my surprise on Sunday he took pictures of me with our beautiful granddaughter.
The moral of the story? If you can encourage your husband to photograph something he is interested in perhaps he will return the favor by photographing something you are interested in.
I gave him my Canon EOS-10
Remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!
Betty Muscott, Child Photographer
ps: Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter “Real Kids Photography” here!
What You Should Have Inside Your Camera Bag
June 28, 2010
Ok, you are going to take a day trip, and you want to take some photos of your kids as they experience the trip. You grab your camera, head for the car and are on your way. The question is: what you should have inside your camera bag on this trip?
In fact, what should you always have in your camera bag?
If you think this is a stupid question, just take a moment and give it a little thought. Women always know that their handbags are not just for them: they are for husbands and kids as well. Husbands are always handing you things they don’t want to carry to you to put in your purse (like the car keys), your kids expect you to carry gum, aspirin and a first aid kit, right?
Well, if you want to be prepared for photographing your kids, then you need to use your camera bag for more than just your camera.
Sling Style Camera Bag from Real Kids Photography
Here is a little list of what I suggest:
- A small comb and hairbrush – (for hair emergencies);
- A small bottle of hair spray – (for bad hair days);
- A spray bottle of water – (to slick down hair);
- Some safety pins and a roll of duct tape – (for clothing repairs, of course!);
- A small stuffed animal, whistle, small toys – (to keep them busy while you adjust the camera/scene);
- A supply of model release forms in case you get a great picture of someone else’s kid that you may want to use on the internet, etc – (it happens!);
- For the camera:
- A lens cloth;
- 2 extra memory cards;
- Extra batteries – (charged, of course);
- A backup camera;
So, be prepared the next time you and the kids head out the door for a day trip and you want to get some great pictures.
Remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!
Betty Muscott, Child Photographer
ps: Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter “Real Kids Photography” here!
Try Your Hand At Night Photography
June 23, 2010
Taking pictures of your children at night is a rewarding and exciting activity; unfortunately, digital cameras don’t always make it easy to do. On the other hand, because taking photos with a digital camera is essentially free, you can experiment and <i>try your hand at night photography.</i>
First of all, not every camera will work for night photography. If your camera is not capable of shutter speeds greater than one second you may have trouble getting decent photographs at night. In truth, your digital camera should have a manual exposure mode allowing you to set shutter speed by hand.
If you are shopping for a camera and are interested in night shots, try and get a camera with a bulb setting (like the Canon Digital XT camera
In fact, a camera with a wireless remote control for the shutter is very handy for night photography, since you can activate the camera’s shutter without shaking it. If your camera doesn’t have this function, the try using the self-timer feature instead.
To start out taking photos of your kids at night I suggest you go to a lighted playground, the downtown are where there are a lot of neon lights, or even an amusement park to begin with. The idea is to find somewhere that has a lot of interesting lights and motion to try your hand at night photography.
Here are some suggestions to follow for your first nighttime pictures:
- Mount your camera on a tripod. With exposure times greater than 1/2 second or longer there is no way you can hold the camera steady enough;
- Switch your camera to the manual exposure mode, and set the aperture to a medium setting such as f/5.6;
- Set the shutter speed to 1/2 second;
- Place your child in front of an interesting scene and have them make some dance or karate moves;
- If there are some cars coming in the background wait until they appear in the viewfinder and snap the photo;
- Next, double the shutter speed to 1 second and shoot the same scene again;
- Compare the results, and take more pictures;
- If your camera records exposure information for each of the pictures this is great, and you can review it to learn what works well.
Photographing children at night
After you have taken a lot of night shots you can compare them side by side to see the effect of increasing your exposure times. Remember, however, don’t trust your camera’s exposure meter at night because you can almost always get more interesting pictures by doubling or tripling the shutter speed suggested by the camera.
Remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!
Betty Muscott, Child Photographer
ps: Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter “Real Kids Photography” here!
Correct Your Images With White Balance
June 22, 2010
Many digital cameras come with a control for something called white balance which allows you to correct your images with white balance settings. White balance is important because different light sources have different color temperatures, meaning that when you photograph your child the image will appear to have a slightly different color tone depending upon the kind of light it is taken in.
You may have noticed this yourself without really ever paying any attention to it. You may have observed, for instance, that the light given off from regular light bulbs appears more yellow than the light which streams in from outside. And other sources of light — like candle light and fluorescent lighting — certainly give off very different colors of light than sunlight or ordinary light bulbs.
Photographers and scientists have gone to the trouble of cataloging the different color temperatures given off by various light sources. Higher temperatures appear warmer, or slightly reddish, while cooler light sources tend to add a blue tone to your pictures. It is not at all unlike the way a flame has different colors at its outside than in the center of the flame. Why? Because those different parts of the flame are at different temperatures.
Lets look at the color temperatures of several different light sources:
- Candlelight – 2000 degrees Kelvin;
- Sunset – 3000 degrees Kelvin;
- Tungsten light – 3200 degrees Kelvin;
- Fluorescent light – 5000 degrees Kelvin;
- Daylight – 5500 degrees Kelvin;
- Camera flash – 5600 degrees Kelvin.
If your camera is set for one kind of light source — daylight, for instance — and you photograph your child who has been illuminated by a very different temperature of light — such as tungsten — the resulting image will not reflect the true colors in the photograph. What should be white will turn out looking a little reddish. This is why you need to be able to correct your images with white balance setting changes. Ordinarily, we don’t notice this ourselves, because the human brain is very good at interpreting what the eye sees. Our brain adjusts for different color temperatures so that the white almost always looks like, no matter what color of light we see our subject in. Of course, cameras are not quite that smart, and that’s why we need to adjust our camera for white balance.
The white balance setting on your camera allows you to pick out exactly what the color temperature of the scene you plan to photograph is. In most cases, your camera can automatically adjust to conditions. If need be, however, you can do it yourself. You will know that you need to adjust the white balance on your camera if your pictures routinely come out shifted to the blue or red end of the color spectrum. If your whites are not white — in other words, your camera doesn’t do a good job of correcting white balance — then you need to do it yourself.
A word of caution here. If you get into the habit of manually adjusting the white balance, remember to reset the white balance to auto when you’re done with each shoot. Otherwise, you might forget that your camera is balanced for fluorescent light when you shoot outdoors, and you wind up with very strange results.
Adjusting White Balance Presets
Most digital cameras will let you choose from a small collection of white balance presets. In addition to automatic white balance selection, your camera probably includes white balance settings for conditions like incandescent light, fluorescent light, an external flash unit, and cloudy or overcast days.
Choosing a White Balance Preset
Changing your white balance setting varies from camera to camera, but the process is typically fairly simple. For the specifics on your camera model, check your camera’s users guide. In general though, this is the process:
- Turn your camera on and set it to its normal mode. If your camera has a separate manual control, choose this instead;
- Press the menu button on your camera so that you see a set of menus on the LCD display;
- Scroll until you find the option for setting white balance;
- Find the lighting condition that best represents your current conditions;
- Choose that option;
- Press menu again to turn off the menu, then take your photograph.
Setting White Balance by Real Kids Photography
You can see an example of the menu setting in the image on the right.
Measuring White Balance Yourself
Sometimes, if you’re in a tricky lighting situation, such as a room that has both incandescent light and candlelight, you may need to set the white balance manually based upon the actual lighting conditions in the room. This may seem complicated, but it’s really not that hard.
Before you start, you will simply need one additional item: a white surface that the camera can use to set the white balance. Typically, you can get by with a small square of white poster board or typing paper. For better and more consistent results, though, I recommend that you purchase an 18% gray card
Professional photographers use small gray cards to measure exposure all the time, since the exposure meters in most cameras assume that images average out to about 18% gray overall. A gray card costs just a few dollars, and you will be surprised at how handy it is for setting the correct white balance.
To set the white balance yourself, follow these steps:
- Ask your child to hold the great card with a great card site facing you. Make sure the card is where you’re actually going to take the photograph, salute you are measuring the actual light as it will be in your scene.
- Turn on your camera and set it to the record mode.
- Activate the menu system on your LCD display.
- Once again, find the white balance controls in your menu.
- Scroll through the white balance options until you find the option to record it yourself. Select this option.
- You should now see an option on the LCD display directing you to photograph a white object. Compose your scene so that the gray card — or whatever you are using to set the white balance — fills the frame.
- Take a picture and exit the menu system.
The camera will now expose any pictures you take using this new white balance setting. Be sure to reset the white balance back to automatic when you’re done taking these pictures; otherwise, you may try taking pictures a day or two later in very different lighting conditions and wind up with some very bizarre results because the white balance setting is completely wrong.
So remember, learn how to correct your images with white balance and the photographs of your children will be consistently better and more pleasing to the eye.
Remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!
Betty Muscott, Child Photographer
ps: Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter “Real Kids Photography” here!
How To Improve Your Indoor Photographs
June 21, 2010
When we photograph our children indoors we are often less concerned about harsh sunlight than we are about having enough light for our photograph and the proper color of light. If we are to create great images of our children then you need to know how to improve your indoor photographs.
In addition, the evil “red eye” is the nemesis of many an indoor photograph as well. For the most part, however, for common snapshots of your children indoors it is probably just fine to use the automatic camera settings and the internal flash unit.
But, if you really want to get great indoor photographs of your children there are a few things you can do to move the odds in your favor.
Use The Best Indoor Light – Window Light
Using Window Light Photographing Children
- Avoid using windows where the light streams in directly creating harsh shadows; instead, pick a window where the incoming light is more diffused and indirect;
- Position yourself with your back to the window and then turn the child so she faces mostly head-on into the window, with some of the light spilling over on the side of her face;
- When necessary, use a reflector or fill flash to fill in the side of the child’s face that may be in shadow.
How To Avoid Red Eye
Remember, the dreaded “red eye” is what happens when the camera flash reflects off of your child’s pupils. You can see this effect on any living subject, but it appears particularly spooky on dogs. The important thing is that red eye occurs more often when photographing your children indoors, underlining why you need to know how to improve your indoor photographs.
Now that you know what causes red eye you can learn some easy ways to avoid it. Here are three common ways to avoid red eye when photographing your children:
- Use the camera’s red eye reduction mode – This is the easiest solution most of the time. When you use this function the camera will trigger the flash several times before it snaps the photograph – but remember, don’t move the camera when it snaps the picture!
- Use an off-camera external flash – If your camera has a hot shoe for an external flash you can connect an external flash. If mounted on the camera, bounce the flash, if you have a flash sync cable port such as the one on the Nikon Coolpix 995
you can connect up to 5 separate flash units to the camera. The cool thing about using separate flash units is that you can hold it away from the camera! - Photograph your children near windows – If you are near a window with natural light streaming in you can avoid the red eye problem entirely because your child’s pupils will already be closed down due to the bright light source.
Correct The Color Balance
The color of artificial light, like the lights bulbs in the home, is entirely different than the color of natural outdoor light. And that means that different kinds of artificial lights have different colors.
Because of these variations in color many indoor photographs just don’t look right. The good news is, though, that you can adjust for different light sources with your camera settings. Called white balance, it will help you make sure that you get natural colors in the photographs of your children regardless of what type of artificial light you use.
Remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!
Betty Muscott, Child Photographer
ps: Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter “Real Kids Photography” here!
Every Photograph Tells A Story
June 4, 2010
We have been discussing various ways to frame your photographs when snapping pictures of your children, and the reason is because every photograph tells a story.
When you have taken photographs of your children correctly the results will be pictures with depth, motion and which convey some sort of story. As the viewer looks at your photograph their eyes will naturally start in one place and then move to another place within the image.
That’s different than with the typical snapshot that has no particular story to tell. The focal point in the typical snapshot is haphazardly placed, and it is so cluttered that there is no obvious path for the viewers eyes to follow.
Good artists and photographers use techniques like lines, symmetry, patterns and multiple focal points to lead the viewer on a specific path through an image. When you have learned to do that you should consider it success.
Tell A Story With Your Photograph
Take a look at the photo on the right: can you tell what the story is? Is it clear what the children are doing, and does it create some curiosity on your part? Does it evoke any feelings, or recall something you have seen your own children do?
Does the photograph suggest a different perspective for photographing your own children? Does it suggest some different ways to look at your children as they play, and how to photograph them in an unobtrusive way but yet capture their essence?
Rules are great to know, have and use as you photograph your children’s lives. Learn the rules well, think about what you want to convey with your photograph, use the rules as you frame your picture and watch what happens when you show them to family and friends.
You will be surprised by their reactions!
But – there are times to break the rules, and we will explore how to know when to break the rules next Monday.
Until then remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!
Betty Muscott, Child Photographer
ps: Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter “Real Kids Photography” here!
Move The Horizon
June 3, 2010
We have been discussing the “Rule of Thirds” as respects framing our photographs, but what if we are photographing our children outdoors and we are dealing with a horizon. An example would be taking a photo of the children on the beach, or playing in an open field.
If you always follow the rule of thirds then this probably won’t be of much help. However, placing the horizon dead center through the middle of the photograph is akin to placing your subject smack dab in the middle of the photograph. In either case the photograph will not be terribly interesting.
Ok, so where do you put the horizon?
Easy, either along the top line or the bottom line of your 2 horizontal lines. Use the top line if you want to emphasize the foreground of your photo to include the beach and some of the water, use the bottom line if you want to emphasize the distant landscape and sky.
Aligning The Horizon In Photography
Take the photo on the right, and notice how the horizon is treated in relationship to the children playing on the beach. It is straight, and follow the top line of our “rule of thirds” formula.
But most important of all is to keep the horizon straight! A slightly off-kilter horizon line can make a horizontal picture look a little cockeyed, so try and be as careful as you can when aligning the horizon in your viewfinder.
Remember, photographs are 2 dimensional representations of 3 dimensional scenes and subjects. The question then becomes how do we lead the viewer’s eyes through the picture to give them a sense of the real depth of the image.
The answer is to use the natural lines you see through the viewfinder. You can use a line of trees, a road, sidewalk or row of buildings to create a sense of depth and perspective in your photograph.
Remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!
Betty Muscott, Child Photographer
ps: Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter “Real Kids Photography” here!
The Rule Of Thirds
May 28, 2010
If you have been anywhere near photography and photographers before you have, no doubt, heard about the “Rule of Thirds.” But what is this rule, what does it mean and how do you use it?
When we take photographs of our children we want to capture something very special in the way they look, act or do something. And, when we get out our photographs to show friends and relatives, we want them to see the same thing in the photograph as we do.
This is why it is important to properly frame our image, and where the rule of thirds comes into play. We want to frame our image and place our subject in such a way that when someone takes our photograph and looks at it they immediately see the point of the photograph. This means placing the most important element in the image in such a way that the viewers eyes are naturally drawn to it.And, in photographing children, it is the image of the child we want the viewers eyes drawn to. We have already discussed the tendency of new photographers to place the image in the middle of the frame, and even fill the frame with that image. However, that may not be the best way to accomplish our goal.
The Rule of Thirds
Imagine for a moment that you were to draw four imaginary lines – two vertical and two horizontal – through our viewfinder onto the image we are framing. Like the image you see on the right. This will divide the frame into nine separate boxes with 4 interior corners where the lines intersect.
These are the “sweet spots” in your picture. If you place your child in any of these intersections you are bound to come up with an interesting photograph. Thumb through a magazine, look through a photography book, and you will quickly notice that this is where the subject of the photograph is usually placed.
That is why this is known as the “Golden Rule” of photography.
No matter where you look you will see that professional photographers follow this rule at least 75% of the time. And while the rule of thirds is relatively easy to do you may find it counterintuitive. Most amateurs try and place the focal point of their picture in the dead center of the frame.
Trust me here – there are few things in life more boring than looking at a bunch of photographs where the subject of the picture is in the center of the photograph.
While this rule is important remember there may be occasions when you want – or need – to break it. For example, assume your subject has a background full of people, strangers really, that would take away from the photograph. In this case you might want to fill the frame completely with just your subject.
Remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!
Betty Muscott, Child Photographer
Where Should You Focus?
May 27, 2010
Most amateur photographers will have the main subject of their photograph in the middle of the frame. When you’re composing a scene, this is not always the most creative option available. Achieving an accurately focused image is a fundamental aspect of photography. If the image is out of focus the image is virtually unusable. Luckily, digital cameras have a variety of ways for dealing with focus.
The first thing you want to do is isolate the focal point. The focal point is the main subject of your picture, such as a building or perhaps a person. In other words, the focal point is the main point of interest in the photograph that draws the viewer’s eye to it when looking at your picture..
You should always strive to consider what the focal point of your picture actually is and then plan your photograph accordingly. The single biggest problem with photographs taken by new photographers is that they fail to consider what their subject really is..
What is the focus of this photograph?
When you’re not sure what you’re taking a picture of, it’s hard to emphasize that in the final composition. That leads to muddy, confused arrangements in your photographs because there is nothing specific for the viewer to look at.
When your subject is simply too large to be considered a focal point in and of itself, try to figure out a focal point and add some interest for your viewer. Remember, when someone wants to look at your photographs, and they pick them up, they expect to have their eyes drawn to the main subject of the photograph immediately.
One way to picture this is to think about photographing a landscape with a mountain in it. As you look at this scene try to pick out a single object such as a mountain cabin, a group of hikers or perhaps even a vehicle somewhere on the mountain to focus on. Think about where to place this object within the frame, but don’t lose sight of the mountain itself.
Technically, this is what we would call a secondary focal point. Remember, photography is subjective, and while we may not want that single object to be the photo’s subject, but rather the mountains to be the photograph’s subject, the mountains by themselves alone simply wouldn’t make a very interesting photograph.
Many amateur photographers don’t really think much about the organization of what they see through the viewfinder of the camera. Therefore, it is important to develop a system to provide some balance to your photographs. You don’t want to forget how to get the most mileage out of the frame in which you’re working. What I’m saying is, you should minimize the amount of dead space in your photograph. Once you decide what the focal point of your image is there is no reason to relegate it to a small portion of the picture.
As you’re thinking about how to compose your photograph walk around your subject, look at it from some different angles, get close, move to the side or perhaps move further away. No matter what you do it will change your perspective, and therefore the viewers perspective, of your photograph. The more interesting you can make your photograph, the more interested others will be to look at it.
With children this may be a bit more difficult because it is hard to get them to stay still. Moreover they may not co-operate with you and take a particular pose. This is where innovation really comes in. Enter into a game with them, become playful, and gently coax them into the position you want by involving them in the process.
Remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!
Betty Muscott, Child Photographer
Why Is Composition Important?
May 26, 2010
As we get ready to photograph our children you might ask why is composition important? After all, for years we have just grabbed the camera, pointed it in the direction of our subject(s), and snapped the picture, right?
Well, now that we have children, and we want to get some great shots of our children to record their history, it is time to get serious about the business of taking their pictures. We have discussed the finer points of what makes a great camera, and how to keep it clean, but now we need to get down to the real work and photograph our kids!
Have you ever been on vacation, whipped out your camera upon seeing your loved ones in a setting you feel is lovely, and then been somewhat underwhelmed with the final results when we get the prints? If so, you have just learned the first golden rule of photography: the reality you see is quite different from what the camera sees! If you don’t think about this every time you frame a photograph you will always be disappointed.
There are a number of reasons why your camera sees things differently than you do. To begin with, your eyes are not little optical machines that function in a vacuum. Quite the opposite, what you see is interpreted, enhanced and supplemented by your brain.
Children Playing
In a way, when you see a majestic landscape while hiking through the mountains of Colorado, some of the beauty of the scene is being added to by your brain. Pick up a camera, look through the viewfinder, and you will get a completely different objective view of the scene without any intelligent enhancement.
Simple: that is because the camera is a little optical machine and it has no brain!
Add to that the fact that the camera has a limited range of focus, exposure and composition than you do. The camera can only see a static scene when it snaps the photograph, while our eyes are continually moving and recomposing the view. Moreover, the pupils of our eyes constantly adjust to changing light conditions in response to the changing light conditions. The pupils of our eyes are like aperture in the camera, the biggest difference being that our pupils can change instantaneously, while the lens of the camera has to select a single aperture (opening) at a single moment in time.
Yes, our eyes, working with our brain, are creating a visual panoply that is difficult, if not impossible, to recreate on paper. Its amazing that we can even get any good pictures at all considering the limitation of our cameras.
Look around you. If you look carefully you will realize that our field of vision is rectangular with rounded corners – in other words, we see the world as a panorama. This is not the kind of shot cameras take.
Our job when photographing our children against this panoramic backdrop is to translate the scene into an attractive photograph using the laws of photographic composition. To get what we want means we need to take a lot of photographs using different composition to get exactly what we want.
Remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!
Betty Muscott, Child Photographer
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