Archives for Camera Tips category
5 Feb
In this video, yours truly James King will show you the correct way to hold a digital camera. There has been some confusion of along beginners in general, that the LCD display is what you use to take your photos.
If ever you have seen a picture that is blurred, it is most probably because the camera was shaken while the picture was taken. With traditional photographic film cameras, it was evident only after the negatives and positives were made. However, with digital camera, the captured image can be seen immediately on the LCD screen, and if the image has shaken, then it can be discarded for a new shot.
Digital camera shakes are common with new users. This is primarily because, new users have not fully understood that the shutter-release button must not be pressed twice, but pressed two steps down. The first step locks the focus and exposure while the second step takes the photo. This pressing of the button has to be smooth, otherwise the digital camera shakes and a blurred picture is the result.
The shutter speed also plays an important role in blurring the picture. The shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter remains open to allow light to reach the digital camera sensor. It is measured in seconds or fractions of a second. An image is exposed by the combination of the lens aperture and the shutter speed. A slow shutter speed needs a small aperture (large F-stop number) to avoid over exposure. With a slow shutter speed below 1/60th of a second, over exposure is adequately controlled, but the digital camera is likely to vibrate more, giving a shaky picture.
A tripod is extremely useful to eliminate digital camera shakes. It is generally used by sports photographers who use long telephoto lens, as it helps in close-ups, landscape and panning shots, for timed exposures, for shooting at slow shutter speeds, and for taking photographs in low or dim light conditions. Shooting a fast moving subject, like athletes, or wildlife, tests the photographer`s skill and the equipment. In such cases, camera shakes are most likely to happen, and thus a monopod or a tripod is always used. Digital cameras mounted on tripods always tend to eliminate camera shakes and give sharp results.
A great feature in most high-end digital cameras available nowadays is image stabilization (IS). IS is an anti-shake and vibration reduction technology and is common in digital cameras with long telephoto zooms of 10X and 12X. With IS, sharp images can be obtained even if the camera shakes a little, a slow shutter speed is used, shooting is done in low light conditions, or a tripod is not used. IS was originally developed for video cameras. It is now available in interchangeable lens, consumer and professional digital cameras, which use optical image stabilization. Sports and wildlife photographers use a tripod and IS technology together to get the maximum sharpness of their photographs; however, many other photographers turn the IS feature off while using a tripod.
Digital camera shakes can be eliminated or minimized by the utilization of the above techniques. However, the fundamentals of taking a good shot prove to be most effective in avoiding camera shakes, in the absence of tripods, or IS technology.
The basics of good photography should be followed. You should hold the digital camera with both your hands. You should keep the legs apart with the knees slightly bent forward. Your elbows should be braced with your body and your body braced with some support, if possible. You should generally frame and compose the picture with the viewfinder and not the LCD screen. You should not jab but lightly press the shutter release button two steps down, and during that time, it would be beneficial to hold your breath to prevent any movement of the chest and hands. With this basic technique of good photography, you can be sure that your digital camera will not shake and no picture will be blurred.
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Taking a vacation is a wonderful experience, whether you go to a beach location, a theme park, have a camping holiday, or travel to Europe on a sightseeing tour. But when you return home, the pictures you took on your trip are a large part of the memory experience. These pictures are priceless and it is worth learning a few tips to make your picture-taking memories more rewarding.
When packing for your memorable vacation, keep in mind these things:
• Camera, batteries + extras, memory card(s), battery chargers
• External flash (if needed), tripod, portable storage device
• Power adapter (if traveling abroad)
• Camera case—waterproof if going to a beach or wet vacation spot (you can also purchase silica gel packs from your camera store to reduce moisture further)
• Underwater camera if traveling to a beach location (even a small disposable one will get those unforgettable shots!)
• Be sure to get a wrist-strap for your camera—you don’t want to lose your camera when you are traversing the rainforest treetops!
Be sure to charge your camera batteries before you leave home, and clear your memory card. It is always a good idea to take an extra memory card with you. Don’t be afraid to shoot lots of pictures of the same subject – a digital camera can hold a lot of pictures and you can sort out the good from the bad before printing them when you get home.
Before you leave home, do a little research on the spot you are traveling to and try to pre-plan some of the shots you may wish to take. Use travel guides, books and magazines to help plan what you may wish to include in your memory album. This may also be helpful not only in planning what type of shot you may wish to take, but may affect when you travel to a certain location. Would you like a shot of the sun rising majestically over the Rocky Mountains? Or how about a shot of elephant feeding time at the San Diego Zoo—or even fireworks over the Eiffel Tower? Make a list of these potential shots and plan your trip accordingly.
PROVE YOU WERE THERE:
When you are taking pictures on your vacation, be sure to remember to include the human element. You don’t want only pictures of the scenery, but this should be a memory experience at the same time. Include pictures of your family and friends, even people you meet at the location. All of these elements ad to the ambiance of the experience.
Try to get at least some pictures with you in it. There is always some passerby around to take a picture of you in front of your cruise ship—just be sure it is someone trustworthy not to run off with your camera. Another good idea for this is to give the passerby a cheap disposable camera instead of your expensive one so that if he does drop the camera or runs off with it you won’t have much to lose. You may not get as good a picture quality, but at least it will be a memory shot.
TIPS ON INCLUDING PEOPLE IN YOUR VACATION PHOTOS:
• Capture the anticipation of your trip by using people. Try photos of packing up the car, arriving at the airport, getting on the plane. This type of picture will lend a great story line when displaying your pictures in an album. The same goes for the end of your trip. Have a shot of your wife sleeping on the plane after a whirlwind European vacation. Personally, I always end our albums with a display of all the things we acquired on our trip—everything from that gorgeous purse I bought in Panama, shells from the beach, to the airline tickets and the Spanish phrase book we used.
• Place your subject off-centre using the rule of thirds. Divide the picture into a tic-tac-toe like grid and rather than placing your subject into the centre square, place them onto one of four lines. This makes for a more interesting picture and is more aesthetically pleasing. A great portrait would be placing a person to one side with the horizon filling the rest of the picture.
• Try to get the people in your pictures to tell a story rather than just standing in front of a landmark. Eating, leaning on street signs, browsing through roadside markets, swimming on the beach are all ways to achieve this.
• Don’t have your subjects stand so far away that you can’t recognize who they are. Get them to stand closer and have the landmark in the distance. You can always take an extra shot of the landmark by itself.
• Sometimes it is good to get a photo of someone in the distance, perhaps with their back to the camera. This comes off as a candid shot and can create great drama in the picture.
• Try to get some action shots. Try taking a candid shot of kids or adults playing on the beach. Or capture someone’s face when tasting that chocolate covered ant. Use the Action Shooting Mode on your camera for a fast shutter speed to stop action so that you can get clear pictures without the blur. The Burst Mode lets you take multiple pictures with one click of the shutter button to catch a sequence of moves—for that Mexican dancing scene.
LANDSCAPE TIPS
• Study the area and plan your photograph. Would the picture be better if taken from the right to include the shadows? How about a different angle? You can crouch or take a photo looking up at the Eiffel Tower instead of straight on—wouldn’t that seem more dramatic? Use perspective to your advantage.
• Think about the distance you are away from your subject. Try to get as close as possible. Sometimes that house in the distance that you like will just be a spot in a 4X6 picture. Use your zoom as much as possible.
• Consider the lighting. The light can be harsh in the middle of the day and less intense in the early morning or late afternoon. Also you can achieve better results with lighting by taking pictures in inclement weather. Experiment by taking pictures at different times of the day. Even the shadows created in a landscape by taking advantage of the early morning light can be interesting and dramatic. Another lighting tip is to use you camera’s flash when shooting in direct sun to reduce effects of shadows on faces or other objects in the picture. If you happen to be in low light, try using a tripod. And experiment…is the light shining in the back or on the side? The placement of light and shadows in a picture can create a great shot.
• If you are taking a picture of a landscape, make sure there are no stray objects that may detract from your composition. Check before you shoot.
• Use colour to your advantage. You can often achieve very dramatic shots of colourful houses, fall foliage or azure beaches to add vibrancy to your photos. If you have a Beach Mode on your camera, use it to capture bright seaside scenes.
• Take advantage of the landscape mode in your camera, which adjusts the aperture so that objects near and far are sharp and clear. To achieve the same effect manually, you need to set your aperture to a high f-number (like f6.3), which will provide a wide range of focus to ensure everything near and in the distance is in focus.
• Panorama shots are very popular and some cameras offer in-camera panorama-stitching which is a feature that uses up to five single shots to create one seamless image right in the camera. Sweeping beach scenes are perfect for the Panorama mode. Tips for panoramic shots: (1) make sure your camera is as level as possible, (2) be sure to stand in the same position for all the shots, (3) overlap you images by 30-50% horizontally. Consider using panoramic shots for breathtaking mountain range shots, sunsets, cityscapes, or even a cascading waterfall.
• Use the Sunset Mode on your camera to achieve ideal dramatic photos of early evening or dawn when the sun in near the horizon. Image that perfect beach with the sun setting in the background.
SNOW OR BLACK AND WHITE SHOTS:
• The key to capturing magical winter shots is in the white balance. To achieve realistic winter scenes, some cameras have a Snow Shooting Mode which will automatically adjust the camera’s white balance to compensate for the snow and lighting conditions. You can also use your camera’s manual controls to adjust the white balance until the snow colour is correct. The image will change on your camera’s screen so you can adjust it up or down until the image appears accurate.
• Black and white pictures accentuate lines, textures and edges making great dramatic photographs. This can be a great choice for beach scenes and coastlines alike.
VACATION PHOTO ART:
• You can turn your vacation photographs into works of art using computer software to manipulate the pictures. If you have an artistic nature this is a great way to display your vacation photographs and receive rave reviews from family and friends.
Another tip on vacation photography is not just to take pictures of landmarks and people. Pictures of birds, flowers, and street signs all add to remembering where you visited.
I hope some of the above tips help in your vacation photography. At home, I love reviewing our photographs and reliving our travel experiences. We always take lots of pictures and share them often with family and friends.
Photosmastery is devloped and maintained by James King. A web designer that is passionate about Digital Photography, web site design and Multimedia. Photosmastery is a project that began in November 2007. Where James uses many types of internet technologies to help others learn about digital photography and photoshop. James is very interested in web 2.0 and podcasting these will technologies will act as future projects to promote Photosmastery.com.
