Thursday, September 26, 2013

Do You Take Portraits That Have a WOW Factor?

1. Alter Your Perspective

Most portraits are taken with the camera at (or around) the eye level of the subject. While this is good common sense – completely changing the angle that you shoot from can give your portrait a real WOW factor.


portrait-high-perspective.jpg
Get up high and shoot down on your subject or get as close to the ground as you can and shoot up. Either way you’ll be seeing your subject from an angle that is bound to create interest. portrait-low-perspective.jpg Read more: http://digital-photography-school.com/10-ways-to-take-stunning-portraits











portrait-low-perspective.jpg


2. Play with Eye Contact

It is amazing how much the direction of your subject’s eyes can impact an image. Most portraits have the subject looking down the lens – something that can create a real sense of connection between a subject and those viewing the image. But there are a couple of other things to try:
A. Looking off camera – have your subject focus their attention on something unseen and outside the field of view of your camera. This can create a feeling of candidness and also create a little intrigue and interest as the viewer of the shot wonders what they are looking at. This intrigue is particularly drawn about when the subject is showing some kind of emotion (ie ‘what’s making them laugh?’ or ‘what is making them look surprised?’). Just be aware that when you have a subject looking out of frame that you can also draw the eye of the viewer of the shot to the edge of the image also – taking them away from the point of interest in your shot – the subject.

portrait-off-camera.jpg

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Have Fun With Photography

Have Fun In Photography

Having fun in Photography is just what is say's having fun, whether it be with your family on the beach or on a vacation  or whether you love taking pictures of the great outdoors, photography can be fun.

Whether you're a newbie or a seasoned veteran, you will enjoy taking pictures of the family, friends and anything you like


 Jonathan's camera 



Here are some good tips for photography:
1. All hand held, natural light, little bit of photoshop now and again, def no flashes, def no studio work. Up to 2 hours for a photoshoot, over 100 images taken at each shoot and always end up with around 50-70 useable images. Always shoot in raw format on manual mode and generally underexposed.

2. You can use a flash to help photograph black animals. I have a beautiful solid black cat and the best way to get her to show up in photographs I've found is to use a mounted flash (not the onboard flash). I have a Nikon Speedlight that I can bounce off the ceiling. Don't direct the flash into the animal's eyes -- not only will you get the redeye problem, but it will irritate or frighten the animal. By using the bounce flash option, I've been able to get some incredible photos of my cats taken indoors (my cats aren't allowed outside).

3. Shooting in RAW is a good idea as mentioned above. I have 2 white dogs so I usually shoot in manual mode and over expose by 2/3 of a stop. The meter always wants to make everything 80% gray so you need to over expose to get their fur white. You could also just properly expose (according to the meter) but just dial in a 2/3 stop exposure compensation.

4. Great tip about not using flash! Not only does it ruin the eyes, but it causes light colored animals, particularly cats, to "glow" instead of having rich looking fur. I have both a Nikon SLR and a travel point and click, and following these tips with both cameras produces very nice shots.

5. Photos of nature are great, but try to include an object of focus in the photo, such as some colorful flowers or an old barn. Offset this object from the center.

6. Silhouette photography is a wonderful way to add a hint of mystery and drama to your shots. For this week's Phone Snap Challenge, we want you to try creating some silhouette photography of your own. Post your image to the corkboard by Monday, January 9th at 11:59 pm PST for a chance to win a SuperHeadz Ultra Wide and Slim 35mm Camera. To help inspire your entry, below are 20 silhouette photos captured by various Flickr users—taken with cell phones only, of course! Also, don't forget to take a look at this guide for capturing silhouetted images with your cell phone.



7. A good idea for pure black or that cocoa brown that looks black is to use the black and white setting. If they have super shiny fur the fur will shine in the lighter areas and give the dimension and at the same time your pet wont be a black blob with eyes and on occasion a mouth.

8. There is no even keel when it comes to lighting the landscape evenly in the mountains. A bright sky might just be sitting above a group of mountains that are totally in shadow. With most cameras, the dynamic range is too low to capture the detail of both. To overcome this issue, you will probably want to invest in a graduated neutral density filter, which will allow you to do things like darken the sky, so that you can get more precise detail in the mountain ridge and sky you're photographing.

9. Most people unintentionally overexpose clouds. The next time you're out taking pictures of clouds, reduce your shutter speed by a few stops. This will give your clouds a more textured and defined look (very similar to using a polarizer). You can tell because your clouds will be much less white, and you will see strong gray outlines.


Do you own a camera and want to having fun with photography taking photo's that you will cherish for ever? Then, you will have to know a few tips to get you started, first you should go through your instruction manual and get familiar with your camera. have fun with photography Is all about experimenting and making mistakes and discovering how to fix them so that next time you'll know what to do when that one in a lifetime photo comes up.

You will have to learn some points about lighting and focusing and aperture settings, all of which can give you different effects and ensure you, have fun with photography You will need to get good clear and sharp pictures, this will include the body of the camera and most importantly a good lens, this is if you can afford it.



Check out my Fanpage on Photography: Have Fun With Photography

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Have Fun With Photography