Posts Tagged ‘photography techniques’ (Page 2)

One of the main benefits of digital cameras is the ability to review your images on the camera. This allows you to easily check whether you got the shot you wanted. If you didn't (and your subject hasn't changed), then you can adjust the settings and try again until you do get the shot you want.

Camera LCD by Hanumann on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

In this article we'll look at the different information we can see using the camera's image playback, and how to use this to get the shot you want.

In photography, it is important that the subject you are photographing is clearly conveyed to the viewer. In a portrait photo, you want the viewer to concentrate on the person, not the background. Going further, you probably want the focus to be on the face, and going further still, probably the eyes, or maybe the lips.

This is true not just for portrait photography, but for most types of photography. With landscape photography, there is normally a main point of focus in the image, for example a tree, the sunset, or maybe a river.

You can help focus your viewer's attention on the important part(s) of the photo by assigning the most important a higher visual weight. There are a number of different factors that are likely to affect how much attention a viewer pays to a particular part of an image.

For a photographer, skills in family portraits are essential and are the bread and butter for many photographers. Looking at the history of photography, one of the first popular uses the camera was not for abstract art, or photographing the family pet, but for photographing people and their families.

Because of the expense and difficulty of each photo taken, they became masters at getting things right the first time and being able to fit in as many people as possible into the frame.

In order to hone in on the small things that make a difference in this classic and often overlooked form of photography, I have come up with my eight Family Portrait tips - five DO's and three DONT's.

Many people find shooting a digital photo to be harder than expected. You might find that you have been taking digital photos since first introduced but have never quite captured that perfect shot you set out for.

Nothing is as disappointing as missing that important event, such as your daughter's dance recital or even your anniversary trip to Italy. When that once in a lifetime moment is remembered with a horrible photo, the frustration can be overwhelming.

That leads us to the question of how do you take that perfect photo? The first rule lies within the photographer themselves, for it is with the photographer that the photo begins, not the camera itself. It's just that simple. Think about how you can see a photograph that a child has taken playing around with a simple disposable camera and it is wonderful while a photo with the priciest SLR can turn out to be awful.

Read these tips on shooting digital photos and apply them the next time you have a chance. Before long, you'll be shooting photos like a pro!

Waterfalls can range from giant thundering torrents to small serene cascades, with everything in between as well. They can make for great photographic subjects, and this article I'll share some tips on photographing waterfalls to make them look their best.

Yellow by Ian Sane on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

There are some common problems that often affect photos taken by new photographers, and even experienced pros make these mistakes some of the time. In this article we'll look at a 5 of the most common problems, and how we can avoid them.

Light painting is the process of manually lighting a photo during a long exposure, often using a torch or small LED lights. There are two types of light painting photography. One is where you shine the light onto your subject, I have covered this previously in How to use light painting for flower photography. In this article, we'll look at how to do light painting where you use the light source as the actual subject of the photo, painting the light into the air.

Painting the City by StandUPP on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

Are your photographs not quite what you expect them to be? Do you find that a lot of them are not clear or are unfocused? Do you hands quit before you do? This could be a result of you not holding your SLR camera correctly.

I know holding a camera sounds like a simple thing but many potentially great shots are ruined because the photographer doesn't have a stable hold on the camera. If you don't have the right grip on your camera you can come down with the deadly camera shakes. Which will result in blurry and unfocused pictures.

This is the type of thing that will push your frustration level through the roof, especially when you are taking pictures inside, or under low light conditions where the shutter speed is slower.

Forced perspective is an in-camera trick where you play with the perspective. It can be used to make something small in the foreground appear large, something in the background appear small, or to create interactions between the foreground and background.

It works through using scaled objects and manipulating depth cues. There are a lot of different subjects you can use for forced perspective photography, here are some examples:

Still Life Photography is a nice, relaxing form of photography. You can take your time, experiment, and don't have to worry about your subject getting bored, running away, or the light rapidly changing.

It has many uses, as well as creating nice photos for the sake of it. Still life photos can be sold via stock websites, and used to illustrate articles in magazines and on websites. Product photography is essentially a form of still life photography, so learning how to photograph still lifes can be useful if you want to take photos to illustrate ebay listings as well.

eneloop [FRONTPAGE + EXPLORED #1] by Matthias Rhomberg on flickr (licensed CC-BY)