If you’re traveling to a place that has already been photographed again and again by the world’s best photographers, what do you do? Just buy a postcard and save yourself the trouble? Right? Wrong!
Photo Tips
10 Travel Photography Tips for One-of-a-Kind Travel Photos
Friday, February 11th, 2011Simplify Your Photos for Maximum Impact
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
Want to take photos like a pro? Want your photo to look like it’s worth a million bucks?
Simplify.
The biggest mistake people make in photography is having too much clutter in the snapshot.
Aim for simplicity. Walk around your subject and recompose until you have reduced as many distractions from the foreground or background as you can.
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10 Strategies for Photographing Children with Grace, Style, and Patience to Spare
Saturday, September 11th, 2010
Your toughest client to photograph will inevitably be the toddler, whether its your own, your grandchildren, or someone else’s. Most of your photos will be of the back of his head as he runs away from the camera, or a shot of her palm as she grabs your camera.
Here’s how to photograph children and babies with grace, style, and plenty of patience to spare:
- Time of day is important. Take pictures at a time of day that the child is happy. It takes significant amounts of bribing and parental threats to get cooperation otherwise.
- Take a few minutes to get to know the child (if he or she is not your own) before you start taking pictures. Some children will do best if they become your friend and you talk to them while you take pictures. Others will shut down if they even think you’re lookingat them. Figure this out and match your approach to the child.
- If you want pictures of children looking at the camera, put something visually interesting on your head. You may feel like an idiot, but it works.
- Speaking of feeling like an idiot, most children like when you (more…)
How to Take Photographs with Emotion
Saturday, September 11th, 2010| “A GREAT photograph is one that fully expresses what one FEELS, in the deepest sense, about WHAT is being photographed.”
– Ansel Adams, Photography Legend |
A photograph that captures raw emotion is the single most important ingredient in making your digital album stand out.
So how do you take photos that communicate emotion?
With the Get Emotional Photo Contest that Pixelbooking is hosting, I was recently asked this question and it’s made me have to stop and think through what I do. My initial response is, “you just do.” It’s hard for me to explain because capturing emotion in a photograph comes naturally. But as I’ve thought, and thought, until my puzzler was sore, I finally came up with some advice in response to this question:
Don’t have a preconceived notion of what you’re looking for.
Be open and ready for an image that surprises even you. My friend was telling me that she was taking pictures for a family and the 3-year-old girl had “finished” cooperating. Her mom took off the little girl’s “special photo shoot clothes” and let her roam free. My friend started taking pictures of the little girl’s baby brother when the girl crawled up and laid her head on him. The first instinct was to shoo her away. After all, my friend was trying to photograph the baby and the girl wasn’t in her nice clothes anymore. But luckily, my friend ignored her first reaction and saw the great opportunity to capture an emotional image.
They should be able to forget you have a camera. (more…)
12 Rules of Composition in Photography
Saturday, September 11th, 2010With so many images all around – in Facebook albums, on blogs, in your digital album, what will make someone stop and look at YOURS?
Learn to make your photos more eye-catching by learning the rules of composition. You’ll become more than a “Point-and-Shoot” photographer and that’s a good thing!
Learning composition doesn’t require any technical knowledge about your camera (you can still use your Auto Settings). But for some people, it can also the most difficult because it requires you to be artistic — a gift that either people naturally have – or they learn.
#1: Rule of Thirds
So, you just have to put your subject in the middle of the viewfinder and click the button, right? WRONG.
Here’s what you do: Imagine dividing the scene into thirds both horizontally and vertically. Put the person’s eyes or the main subject near one of the intersections.
Easier still: Move the frame so the subject is slightly off-center. Ta da! An instantly more attractive, balanced and professional-looking photography. This will ALWAYS look more pleasing than centering your subject in the viewfinder.
