I did say it would be a little quiet in this space for awhile…and so it has been. But I'm feeling as though I'm starting to get caught up on orders and ready to finish up projects and start new ones. Another week or two and I should be back to my usual posting in this space. In the mean time, I'm posting to Flickr frequently.
My husband and I were at my grandma’s house for dinner one night a few weeks back when the follow conversation occurred:
Husband: I watched a program last night and they were talking about a book called Stitch ‘n Bitch. Have you hear of it?
Me: Yeah, it’s a knitting book. The gal that wrote it has a yarn line out now. You were actually watching this?
Husband: Yeah. There was this guy talking about knitting and how he holds the yarn the same as when he does some other yarn thing.
Me: Crochets.
Husband: Yeah. Crochets.
Me: Yeah. I do that, too. I hold my yarn when I knit like when I’m crocheting.
Husband: Yeah, he was a Lincoln knitter.
Me: A Lincoln knitter? Huh. Haven’t heard of that one. I’m a continental knitter.
Husband: Yeah! That’s it! Continental!
Me: How did you get Lincoln?
Husband: I must have been thinking “Lincoln Continental”.
Bravo for using word association to remember the right word so he could show he has an interest in what I’m doing. But Lincoln? That cracked me up. I’m still laughing about it. He also watches the Cricut commercials. I know he secretly wants it for himself.
Thank you for all the positive responses on the photography posts. I loved being able to share with you what works for me. Everything I shared is what I've learned on my journey with my digital camera (and some of it from my days of college photography classes). I still have a long way to go and lots more to learn, but you can bet when I find out new and exciting things with my camera and in editing I'll be sure to share it in this little space so that all of you can continue to learn and improve. I have a full plate at the moment and will be spending a lot of time getting caught up and taking care of some real-life business in the next few weeks. Things are bound to be a little quite. I will try and pop in from time to time to share what I’m doing, but will be more likely to update Flickr on a regular basis since I am doing the 365 photo “thing” and don’t like to get behind.
Until next time, I'll leave you with this photo of my current work in progress – a Take 2 on my DQS8 quilt (Doll Quilt Swap). I will be sure to share the finish product in this space sometime very soon. This block is found in the book Alphabet Soup by Tammy Johnson & Avis Shirer. Also, I’ll try and get a button up soon to the links on the photography stuff in the sidebar so that you can easily find it in the future.
When I first thought of doing a post about what I do with my photography, I started thinking about just what it is about my photos that myself and others like. What is it that makes a good photo to me. It is a very individualized thing. Then I thought about how great it would be to hear from someone else on the topic and see how they approach their photography. I immediately thought of Julia from the blog Adirondack Mama, someone I now consider a good friend, and all because of our blogs. I think that Julia has always had an eye for photography and with her new camera I saw a noticeable change in her photos on her blog. I think it not only had to do with the camera but with a new found confidence in what she was capturing. Julia lives in the Adirondack's and has some of the most amazing photos of the area. I always love going to her blog, not only to read what she has to say, but to see what beauty she has captured for the day. Thank you so much Julia for taking the time to share with us. I think that you will all enjoy her post and find some great tips in here.
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When I started blogging, I was not much of a photographer. Over the years leading up to my starting a blog I had a camera, but I never played around with any setting. I pointed and clicked.
Eben…Kodak throwaway camera…1 year old.
I took an occasional shot of my boy, usually a blurry ball of baby with a throw away camera, I got it developed at RiteAid… and that was that. Looking back, I could just kick myself for not taking quality shots of my boy while he was so little. The start of my blog was the end of that though. As I started to branch out and meet other bloggers, I took notice of what it was that drew me to their space. What I realized was that the majority of the ones that I visited the most often were dripping in photos. Gorgeous close up, composed, inspiring photos. The ones that looked like they were taken right from the pages of a magazine. I drooled over their posts, as if every one of my senses was enhanced just from viewing it. I could almost smell, hear, touch or taste what it was they were writing about.
I wanted that for my own space. I wanted to be able to convey such sense in a post. So, I went about teaching myself with inspiration from others, encouragement from my father who generously let me borrow his cameras and pick his brain for suggestions. Slowly, I found what worked for me. Now, after more than a year of blogging, I have honed my posts to resemble what I idealized for them all along. Photos are such a huge part of blogging for me that it was inevitable that I would force myself to figure it all out. Pictures are the glue that ties the writing in my posts together.
In my quest to make my blog more eye pleasing, I have learned a few tricks. Tricks that I will share here.
TAKING THE SHOT
1. Click Away…I can not stress enough the importance of taking a lot of pictures. That is the bonus of having a digital camera…there is no worry about a wasted shot. I take an enormous amount of pictures and out of those, there are only a handful that I end up deciding to use in my blog. When I take picture of something, whether it be an object, a person, a plant, a mountain, I just click away. And then, after I have uploaded them to my computer I have the freedom to go through them and chose the ones that I like the best. That way, I have a ton of options when I go to fill my posts with pictures.
2. Angles…Capture your subject from all sorts of angles. I love to mess around with how I set up the shot. I stand at eye level, from the side, over the top. Looking up, trying out every angle imaginable. Things can look so different depending on how you look at it.
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Like this, when I got my new camera from my parents. I tried out different angles to capture it.
The one on the left is unremarkable. It gets the point across, but it’s pretty blah.
The one on the right is better in my opinion, The light on the top of the camera, the writing on the lens cap. It gives an interesting view of something that was so exciting to me.
3. Lighting…There is no substitute for daylight. I rarely use my camera’s flash. The average camera’s flash casts a yellow or orange glow to a shot. To me, the lighting can be the difference between a good and a bad picture. If I am inside and I want to take a picture of something, I put it on the table in my sewing room that gets the most light. I can always rely on this window to enhance my picture. If I finish a project at night and want to take a picture of it to post to my blog, I will wait until the next day(when it is daylight) to take the pictures for the post.
For example…see the difference in the next two shots.
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| Taken using a flash | Taken in natural light |
4. Scaling back on busyness…I try to not make my scene too busy. It I am writing about something specific then I like to make sure that IT takes up the majority of the shot.
For example. If I wanted to talk about a certain stack of fabric in my stash, I COULD use any one of the following shots.
*The top left photo is too busy, the fabric is only one part of the shot.
*The Second one is better, but still, kind of bland.
* bottom left is the one that I would use. It shows the fabric in its glory and it has a feeling of texture.
*The last one would be a second choice, but I am not too crazy about the lack of focus. In the right post though, it might be just what I was looking for.
At least by taking so many shots, I give myself options. I give myself the ability to style my posts.
5. Up close and personal…I am a huge fan of the macro setting on my camera. Close-ups give such a more personal, interesting, honest view of what I are trying to convey. My first camera did not have this option. The shots just got blurry when I tried to capture something up close. Once I got my next camera from my dad though, a whole new world opened up to me….. DETAIL.
Using the macro setting on my camera …Close up of branches of my Advent tree..taken in daylight.
6. Vision…I am a big fan of taking a shot that looks realistic. When I take a picture of something in my house or of my life, I try NOT to have it be too stylized, or contrived. Especially when blogging, I want to be genuine.
Example…It IS possible to take a decent shot of even a mundane task…. like laundry though.
The angle, the lighting, the colors, the unmade bed, they all add to the authenticity of this shot without being contrived.
EDITING
In regards to editing. The most important thing for me it to take a decent picture to start with and then I have less editing in the end. I use Picasa for editing my pictures. It is a really easy and wonderful editing software. Plus, it was a free download! I usually make the same edits to all of my pictures. That way I spend less time in Picasa. There are countless edits that you can make to your pictures, but I really like to just enhance the actual shot. I don’t like to alter my images too much because then I find that they don’t resemble how they look in actuality.
These are just a few edits that I do to all of my shots.
 Picasa’s crop menu. |  |
#1. Crop…I crop all of my photos in Picasa. Almost all of my photos that I use on my blog are cropped to to a size 5x7.
 Before Edits |  After Edits |
#2. Tuning…I adjust the tuning of the picture in Picasa.
Usually I turn up the highlight to enhance the whites in the shot so that the colors pop. And secondly, I increase the shadow to give a contrast to the highlight.
Here is an example of the before and after the above mentioned edits were done.
 Before editing |  After editing |
In general, I make sure that before that I hit publish that the photos in the post are relevant. When I first started blogging I would just write a post, stick a picture at the top of the post, and be done with it. There is nothing more distracting to a reader than reading about one thing and then having some disjointed photo pop up in the post. Now I have learned, that if I don’t have a picture to go with a post, I usually don’t end up publishing what I wrote.
Blogging is one of those things in life that can enhance the things that you experience in life. A way to look back and share with others in a wonderful, budding community. I have found that as my picture taking skills have grown, I have gotten so much more joy out of blogging. Just learning and growing along the way. And that is what life is all about. It is fun to have a way, such as a visual blog, to look back and enjoy all of those things over and over again.
Photography is not something that I will ever feel that I am a pro at. I am learning every day just by clicking the shutter. I feel that it is something that I am passionate about and because of that, the joy of the experience is heightened even that much more. Learning doesn’t feel like a task if it is something that you love.
Thank you so much Christina. For starting this series and for thinking of me. Thank you for being such a kind and inspiring friend.
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Again, a BIG thank you to Julia for guest posting today! I love hearing a different perspective on the topic, but at the same time like to see that we have similarities in our approach to photography.
When editing photos I like to use two different programs :: Photoshop Lightroom and Photoshop CS4 (or whatever the current version happens to be), so I thought I would start this post by talking about each program a little bit. As I mentioned yesterday, a lot of the same features of CS4 are available in Photoshop Elements and it is an economical place to start for photo editing. I know that it is a program that a lot of digital scrapbookers like to use for their beautiful layouts. Since I don’t have a copy of it, I can’t tell you the exact differences, but I do know it does a lot of the same things I like to do with the CS versions.
Lightroom :: Photoshop Lightroom is a digital darkroom as well as a great spot to manage and organize your photo collection. It is a great way to edit your photos, while still maintaining the integrity of the original photo. There are several modules to this program – Library, Develop, Slideshow, Print, and Web.
In the Library module I can view all of my photos in grid view or view them one by one. I can sort my photos by all sorts of attributes as well as do some simple edits. I can create collections and save them for easy viewing later. I can easily navigate the photos on my hard drive, rearrange them and create new folders all from Lightroom.
In the Develop module I can do more advanced editing. The controls are all very intuitive (exposure, black, clarity, etc…) and I have options of spot editing with the brush tool, as well as red-eye removal and spot remover. I can also play with curves, hue/saturation/luminance and vignettes amount other things. The program comes with a group of Presets for editing your photos. Some of them include Aged Photo, B&W High Contrast, Direct Positive, Sepia, etc…
You can also create and save your own Presets for use on later photos (this is my “Vintage - Creamy” edit). I find this feature very helpful and use it all the time. There are also lots of great Presets on the internet to purchase or download for free.
The other modules of the program are not ones that I use on a regular basis, but they are great to have. Slideshow creates slideshows that can be viewed through the program or exported to PDF. Print is for creating print layouts of your photos (above). Web allows you to create web galleries and export for use on your website. All great tools.
This is a great program for basic editing like exposure and color corrections as well as for more advanced editing like sepia, black and white and fun seventies effects. You can also create rounded corners on your photos using the vignette tab!
Photoshop CS4 :: I love to use this program when I want to do more editing than just exposure and color correcting. In Photoshop I’m able to create layouts with my photos, add text or shapes.
What I love most about Photoshop is Actions. Actions are a recorded set of steps. You “play” an action in Photoshop to create a desired effect. I have an action for adding my watermark to photos and to add it I just select it in the action menu and press play. The program goes to work and after a few seconds, I have my watermark on my photos. I also have an Action to automatically export my image into a small JPG file size for use on my blog. Instead of several steps, I have just two – choosing the action and pressing play. There are many great Actions for purchase or for free online. Creating your own Action is really very simple and worth checking into. As with everything, do a Google search for what you want to know (try :: how to create an Action in Photoshop).
There are so many great features within Photoshop. I don’t even know about half of them. I am constantly learning new things and finding out how to create better edits on my images. But I thought I would talk to you about some of my favorite edits.
1. I love the Seventies action that can be found free from Pioneer Woman. It doesn’t work on all photos, but the majority of the time if one of my other stand-by edits isn’t doing the trick, this will. No Action will be perfect for every photo and you may find that you have to tweek an edit a little after it’s made, but it’s usually just a matter of adjusting the brightness and contrast or hue/saturation, or playing with curves. Anything you might want to change will be found in the “Adjustments” window/menu.
2. My other favorite edit is one I purchased. It is called Creamy Cyan and was developed by De Vetpan Studios. You can find it on Etsy for $8 and I’m telling you, it’s worth every penny. I love this action and use it for the majority of my photos with editing. Not only do you get the Action, but you get directions on how to create the action yourself – which is great for learning more about Photoshop. Actions are great, but it’s even better to learn the program for yourself so you can create your own edits in time.
3. Deviantart is a great place to find free actions. There are so many great users on this site that I can’t really single any out. You’ll just have to look for yourself.
4. When all else fails, make it black and white. That fixes everything. You always know when it’s a cruddy photo, because it’s in black and white. And I'm not the only one that uses this trick – lots of professionals do, too!
I’m sure I'm going to have someone tell me that the original photo was great just as it was and didn’t need an edit (this is SOOC – straight out of the camera). Maybe so, but I like edits! I think it’s fun to play and manipulate a photo. I love creating and having a soft or edgy look to a photo. It’s all a personal preference and invariably you will do what appeals to your sense of “art”. You should go out and experience your “inner-artist” and play with edits on your photos. You’ll find that it can be addicting.
Alright, that should do it for now. I don’t want to overload you. My intent is to give you some direction and let you know what it is that I’m doing with my photos. This does it for my photography posts, so if you have any questions that I haven’t answered please feel free to ask and I will post answers in the comments, or if there are enough questions I will create a follow-up post. Tomorrow we have a guest in this little space talking about her experience with photography, so please check back in the evening hours for her take on photography and what she finds works for her. And just because it’s been awhile, I thought you needed a dose of my little man’s dimply smile.
Wow – that was quite a long “tomorrow” from the last post. We had some unexpected moving of spaces and internet outages and more moving, but I finally have a space to set up my computer again. Today I want to talk about simple photo edits that can drastically improve your photos. I have found some free photo editing websites that I will pass along to you at the end. I like to edit my photos in Photoshop Lightroom or Photoshop CS4, but most of the edits I will be sharing today can be done in almost any editing program. I’m using the same image through out so you can see from one step to the next how slight the change is, but at the end you will see the before and after photos next to each other.
Brightness :: Something that I do for almost every photo I work is with bump up the brightness. As I mentioned before, I like photos that are slightly overexposed with blown-out highlights. It is amazing what a change it can be to brighten your photo up. The photo above is a good example. When I first downloaded the photos from my camera, I thought this photo was okay as was (see above), but by bumping up the brightness just 30% the photo now has more life.
Contrast :: On almost all photos, I bump up the contrast just a little bit. It just makes for more defined edges and darker colors. Depending on the photo, increasing your contrast can change it in many ways. With this photo it warmed it up a bit, as well as made the steps on the stepstool blacker. The image is a little lighter as well and sometimes contrast will lighten your photo quite a bit, and you will therefore want to keep an eye on that. On this photo I push the contrast up 66%.
Exposure :: This is similar to brightness in that it can help to brighten up your photo, but what it will really do is help you to achieve the proper exposure. This is an option that isn’t always available in free editing programs, but again, something I use a lot of in my edits. You just want to be careful and not bump it up too much and wash out your photo. I usually end up playing with the exposure, and then the brightness if the photo is still a little “dull”. Here I took it up about 3/4 of a stop (from the unedited photo) – meaning, I can go up to +2.0 and I took it up to about +0.75.
Temperature :: Temperature can be used in two different ways – (1) to fix white balance, or (2) to warm up (or cool down) a photo. Sometimes when using auto white balance on your camera, you may find that the coloring came out a little cool (blue) and you want to warm (yellow) it up. Or, maybe the photo you’ve taken just needs to have some warmth added to it and in this case, increasing the temperature will add a little “sun” to the image. I don’t find myself going to the cool side of things, unless the photo was just too yellow (like photos inside at night with the yellow (tungsten) light bulbs). In that case I like to cool it down just a little bit, to give it a warm look and not a yellow-light-bulb look. For this particular photo, I warmed it up a bit, since the white was looking a little “sterile”.
Tint :: Sometimes with your temperature controls you will also have tint controls – this controls the green and magenta of a photo. I don’t find myself playing with these controls too often, but once in awhile I find that an image is a little on the green side and needs fixing – like in this instance. It’s actually a little too much magenta, but the tone in the back by the bookshelf no longer has a green hue to it.
Curves :: Curves is a little more advanced of an editing tool – but very powerful. You can play with both the brightness and contrast of an image right from curves as well as many other elements of a photo just by dragging the curve around it’s graph. This photo was edited only with curves. The curve started as a straight line from the top right to the bottom left and I adjusted it to the curve you see to gain the image to the left of it. The best way to see what curves does is to just play with the tool on an image. There are lots of tutorials out there on how to work with curves. Just do a Google search if you want to know more.
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| Before + After |
So these are some simple fixes to photos that are not quite right just out of the camera. It’s a good place to start to making a good photo a fantastic one. I surfed around and found several online editing programs that are free. If you don’t have an editing program, one of these may be a great spot to start. Also, while I don’t have a lot of experience with Photoshop Elements, it is very similar to the CS versions and costs only about $99. Sometimes you can even find deals on it for around $70 – just do a Google Shopping search.
Free Online Editing Websites
Phixr – Is free to use and does not require registration (at least as I tried it). There are lots of options available, but of particular note is that it gives you the ability to play with the temperature, exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation and hue. There are other options like color effects (sepia, black and white, cross processed, etc…), red eye remover, camera effects (lomo, Holga, vignette, and night vision), sharpen, borders and lots more. A great editing tool all around. Oh, and you can choose images from your computer or online, like from your Flickr account.
Picnik – This program is one that can be used in junction with your Flickr account, right from Flickr. When you’ve finished with your edits you can choose to have the image uploaded right to your Flickr account. A great time saver. There is an “auto fix” option, rotate, crop, resize, exposure and contrast, saturation and temperature as well as sharpen and red-eye. There are also preset options, though you are limited on what you can do with a free account.
FotoFlexer – Also for use with various online photo album programs (i.e. Flickr). You can crop, resize, adjust contrast, brightness, temperature, hue, saturation and choose from lots of presets. And much more.
Pixlr – This program works a lot like Photoshop. You can do SO much. If you want a more advanced program, this is for you. It has all the basics plus levels and curves, layers and much, much more. There are even a few presets under the Filter menu.
FlauntR – This looks like it would be a really good program if I could figure out how to open my photos that I upload. If the one of the others isn’t to your liking, you might like to give this one a try. It looks as if it’s very similar to Pixlr, but I think not as user-friendly.
That’s it for this post, next post I will be back with some more on advanced editing techniques, but these will mostly be for those that want to brave Photoshop. See you next post!
I hope yesterdays terminology was easy to understand and helps you know a little more about photography. Don’t get lost in the terms, sometimes it just takes time for everything to click. I can’t tell you how long it took for me to actually understand aperture and shutter speed. There is lots more to know about each, but that’s what college courses are for. My goal is show you what I do and what I think will help. Today I thought I’d talk about some tips on how to get better photos from your camera.
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| +2 EV |
Exposure Compensation (EV) :: As mentioned yesterday, this is something I use to brighten up my photos. For me, this allows for little editing later (sometimes none if I'm lucky). The photos above show a progression in going from 0 to +2 EV (exposure compensation). What you have to set your camera at will differ from camera to camera (by the way, I am shooting with a Canon Rebel XTi). On the point-and-shoot (a Casio Exilim) I only need to bump it up to +0.5.
When outside, I actually have to bump that down on my Canon, especially if it is a bright, sunny day. I find that I need to keep it at about 0 to +0.5 EV. The exception to this is if I'm shooting something (or someone) that has a lot of white or black. Then I will need to adjust my EV to work with that – which is really the point of this feature. Of course, there can always be editing done later to fix exposure issues, but you need to have a decently exposed photo to begin with.
The above series of photos shows a progression from 0 to +2 EV on my DSLR. Because the subject matter is white-ish, I found that in this case I actually like the last photo the best (on my monitor anyway) with a +2 EV. What’s so nice about digital cameras is that you don’t have to worry about wasted film, so take a few photos at different exposures and see what you like best. I always test this before I begin shooting new subject matter (especially if its people).
Depth of Field :: This photo is a good example of depth of field. The foreground is in focus and the rest of the image is out of focus. That is essentially what people are referring to when talking about depth of field – the subject matter that is in focus. Here is more on Wikipedia – Depth of Field.
To create depth of field you will want to get as close to your subject as your camera will allow and reduce your aperture – with my 50mm lens I take it down to f/1.8 (or there about). If you are working with a zoom lens, and your aperture is not able to go that low (maybe only f/3.5), set your camera to aperture priority mode (usually Av) and take it down to it’s lowest setting. Then, zoom all the way in on your subject matter, standing as close as you can, and take your photo. You should have your subject in focus with the rest blurry. How blurry will depend on the lighting conditions and your camera/lens. Wide angle lenses, or macro filters can also be great for getting depth of field.
If you have a point-and-shoot (P&S from now on) that doesn’t allow you to play with aperture, then you will want to put it on your macro setting (which is the little flower, probably found in a menu with “auto focus”). This is usually a setting on your SLR as well and can certainly be used if you prefer.
On the P&S, when I put it into macro-mode, I can right away see what it’s doing for me. I am able to get really close to my subject and snap a photo that shows more detail and can create some depth of field. Creating depth of field gives so much interest to a photo, especially if you have some fun, fuzzy stuff in the background. The photo above was taken with my P&S on macro (flower) mode.
Which leads us into…
Bokeh :: Bokeh (pronounced bo-kah) is the blur in the out of focus parts of a photo and is generally referring to (and by definition) the points of light that are out of focus. But of course, that will vary with who you ask. Some refer to it as just the blurry parts of a photo that are distinctive. I love to create bokeh effects, like above at Christmas. Sometimes it happens by accident, or in this case, I create it. What I did here was switch my lens to manual focus and purposely put the lights all out of focus and then took the photo. Of course, while some will think of this as “art” some will just find it gives them a headache. Here’s a Wikipedia article on the subject :: Bokeh. There are also some great groups on Flickr dedicated to bokeh.
While I find that my prime lens (that would be my lens with a fixed focal length – 50 mm f/1.8) is the best for getting bokeh shots, I also like my zoom lens (28-300mm f/3.5) for this. I don’t really use this lens unless I'm outside and find that it works best there.
Custom White Balance :: Knowing how to create a custom white balance can be a very useful thing – especially when shooting indoors without natural light. All DSLR’s should have this function and I believe most P&S camera’s as well. First, let’s start with finding our white balance menu, as some of you will need to start there. On my P&S camera I can access this right from the screen where I see AWB (auto white balance) and choose a different one if I need to. Or, I can go into my Menu and under “Quality” is White Balance. You’re white balance will probably be set to Auto, but if you look at the different options you’ll probably see the following: Auto, Daylight, Overcast/Shade, Fluorescent, Tungsten (which is our yellowed light bulbs we use) and Manual or Custom. There will be more or less or different names depending on your camera. In this instance we want Custom.
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| Auto | Tungsten | Custom |
First, for both types of camera, you will want to find something that is all (or mostly) white as a reference point. On the P&S I am able to just choose manual and depress the shutter button for it to calibrate to my white object (usually a sheet of paper or my white board). After that is done, I exit the menu and begin taking photos. I am going to assume that most P&S cameras are this way. The photos above were done on my P&S. You really can’t see a whole lot of difference between Auto and Tungsten. And the custom is really too “blue”. In this case, I would probably go with the Auto…or wait for daylight.
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| Auto | Tungsten | Custom |
Most DSLR’s should be the same, but please let us know in the comments if the Nikons are drastically different. First, switch your lens from auto mode to manual, usually a switch on the side of the lens indicated by AF and MF. Next, fill your lens with the white object under the light you will be shooting in – for instance, if you are taking the photo in your kitchen, do this in there. Take your photo. Now, go into your camera’s menu options and find Custom WB. When I go into Custom WB I am asked to select a photo, usually my last one is the white object and is the first it shows – select this. Your camera may then alert you to choose the custom white balance from your white balance menu. Either way, make sure it’s chosen and then snap away. These photos were taken with my DSLR, while the custom is a little “blue” as well, I think I prefer it to the others. There are times that I enjoy a bit of a yellow cast, it just all depends on the subject matter and the look I'm going for.
Composing Your Shots :: When we first start taking photos we begin with our subject perfectly centered and fitting fully into the frame. This is great for showing an item, but it gets a little boring. Instead, think of ways to compose your shots differently.
* Take a few photos with most of your subject matter in them, but leave a little bit out, or have a little of the item out of focus. It’s okay to show more than one view of an item, and this often is more exciting especially if you can get a feel for the texture of the item. Take this photo for example, you know they are knitting needles and don’t need to see the full item as above to enjoy the beauty.
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* Instead of taking the photo straight on, switch your angle. Move up, down, to the side… For the most part, I like my photos to be taken at the same level as my subject matter. If something is at waist level, crouch down and take the photo from there. These two photos are very similar, but the one of the right is just a little more interesting and all I did was change my position when shooting the photo. The light hits the needles differently, you see the shadow underneath them and you get a great sense of dimension, where as the first photo feels very flat.
* Askew your angle. But not too much. Sometimes turning your camera just a tiny bit can make a photo more interesting. Instead of holding it perfectly level, give it a little tilt. But be careful how much tilt you give it. Sometimes when we look at photos with too much tilt, we feel that we need to turn our head to get a better look at it and then we’re really not getting a good look at all. You don’t want to have to work for it, but just arrive and enjoy the view.
A few last tips ::
* When possible, shoot in natural light. Find a window with good light exposure and set up a table for taking photos. Nothing beats natural light. If it’s not a particularly photogenic surface, drape a white sheet over it or pick up an inexpensive white board at a craft store.
* Don’t shoot outside on a sunny day, in the middle of the day. While you may think this is the ideal light, overcast days are actually better. When shooting in the middle of the day there will be shadows cast on your subject matter. You will see this especially when taking photos of people. While it is nice and bright, there face will be shadowed. Instead, if you must shoot outside on a sunny day, find some shade.
* Overcast days are the best days for outdoor photos. It’s not too bright. Also, taking photos at the start of the day or end of the day, as the sun begins to descend, is ideal. Depending on the time of year, I like to take my photos just a few hours before sunset.
* Think outside the box. I’m sure you hear that a lot. But it’s true. Don’t just take photos on tables, use other pieces of furniture or things found outdoors – fences, stumps, mailboxes, a grassy yard, or go to a park and utilize the play equipment and benches.
* Take your time. Unless you’re taking actions shots, take your time to compose the photo and make sure you have it aligned how you want.
* Take lots of photos! Don’t be afraid. Thanks to digital camera’s you can afford to take lots of photos and later delete what you don’t like. This is always what I tell people who ask what they can do to take better photos – practice makes perfect.
* Read your camera’s manual. I know this sounds like work, but it will be worth it. A lot of times, they are very helpful. You have all of these settings on your camera that supposable make it great, so why don’t you do yourself a favor and learn what all of them do. You paid a hefty price for your camera and you should make sure to get your money’s worth.
* When all else fails, Google it! That’s what I do.
I’m sure there is much, much more that I will think of after I hit “publish” on this post, but for now I think this is a good start on getting great photos right from your camera. The next few posts are going to focus on editing your photos. We’ll start out simple and I'll lead you to some free websites for photo editing. After that we’ll move to Photoshop style editing. See you tomorrow!
**Edited** The Nikon’s white balance is quite different – but still the same idea. I don’t want to try and lead your through the Nikon’s instructions since I don’t have one in front of me, but here is a link to the manual for the D90, go to page 101 (page 121 of the pdf document) and you will find how to set your Manual white balance. Here is a link to download other Nikon user guides :: Nikon Download Center. And here is a link for Canon user guides :: Canon Download Center. If there are other camera’s being used, and you need help finding your user guide online, just let me know the manufacture (Pentax, Olympus, ect…) in the comments and I’ll help you out.
