Group Photography - How to Set Up a Group to Photograph

By Bobby Jonnes

Group photography is one of the easiest branches of photography to achieve success in, yet I still get asked more question about setting up groups than any other topic. I hope this article helps.

Before accepting the job you should be clear about the size of the group, the location and the backgrounds available. You will need to consider lighting, whether it is available light, flash or studio lights.

Depending on the size of the group you will need to have a number of pre arranged posing setups. Factors to be considered here are, is the group to be formal or informal, both require different setups.

A formal group of for example 20 people should be posed with 2 rows of 10 or even 3 rows, that is 2 of 7 and one of 6. If you have no choice in respect of differing height levels for placing them on, you will have to bring all the smallest people to the front and tallest to the rear.

More often than not though, you will have access to chairs or seats. You can seat the front row of 6, the middle row of 7 standing behind them, and again stand the rear row of 7 on seats. You obviously need to be careful with regard to personal safety.

Be careful also of expectations, some people may need to sit at the front, for example the leader of the group, president and so on. Always ask this if you are unsure.

You must before pressing the shutter check the background. Try to clear as much in the way of distractions out of the background.

A good way to lighten everyone up is to ask them to turn to the person next to them and check that persons tie, collar, hair etc. This will save you the hard work of trying to ensure everyone looks their best, it will also raise a laugh or two!

Check the final arrangement to ensure that there is a degree of uniformity about it. By this I mean if you have some subjects with their hands behind their back and some with them in front, it will not look right in the final image. Have them all one way or the other.

I hope this article will help you with setting up groups.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have written a comprehensive guide on wedding and group photography.

Visit my site for more information Wedding and Group Photography Guide

Bobby is a photographer and author. He has been commissioned to shoot thousands of events, including weddings.

Great Things About Photography

By Pooja Lapasia

Photojournalism has come a long way and is now a multi-million dollar business. People involved in photography have put up their work on blogs and are expanding their horizon. Community sites like Flickr have dedicated them to budding photography enthusiasts. There are a lot of reasons behind the passion of photography. Camera stores are mounting offering imaging solutions to all.

Photographs give a glimpse of our whole life. When you see your childhood photographs with your schoolmates it does bring a smile on your face and all those funny memories rush into your mind. The family trips, school picnics, social gatherings all are arrested in images which are enduring. The photographs you take and the way you take it matters the most. You can make a scenic photo look scary if you take it in black and white. You can play with the lighting and shadows and create a whole new prospective for the image. The photo control is in your hands and you can create your won theme and look for an image.

Photography is not as simple as it seems to be. Maybe after 50 attempts for a good shot you would get a decent picture. The important thing in photography is to have patience. The best cameras won't guarantee you good pictures but a skilled photographer who has gained knowledge over a period of time will. Photography is an art and it need not be appreciated by all. You have to believe in your work, if you like your picture then it has the value, it doesn't count if anyone appreciates it or not.

Photographs speak a lot about the photographer's personality and traits. The kind of pictures you click and the way you present it, display your perception and mannerisms. Photography is individualistic and doesn't follow a particular path, rules or regulations. You and your camera need to connect and you need to feel the subject you want to frame. Once you decide to capture something, laziness shouldn't overcome your willingness to get that perfect picture. Photography gives a sense of satisfaction to the photographer and it exposes his perception to all. Sharing of photographs would only enhance your work and make you better. This art can be practiced by anyone; it requires some dedication and your imagination.

Pooja Lapasia has a good name an an expert author, her articles cover many topics i.e. digital cameras, mobile phone, online shopping, gifts, flowers etc.

How to Become a Photographer 1

By Soren Breiting

Truly, many professionals in the photography business are having a degree in photography from one of the different schools of photography, schools of art with a specialization in photography or press photographers education on schools of journalism etc. Programs like Professional Photography, Digital Photography, Mass Communication and Graphic Design are among the offers at colleges and universities to get a professional photographer degree.

But what I am focusing on is the possibility of people skilled in photography without the basic training and with another full time day job who want to live out their dream of being a photographer. The individual history of now well established photographers are showing a diversity of paths to their career as photographers but here I will first emphasise the potential of starting the photographic career as a part time stock photographer.

If the dream is to become a photographer and the question accordingly is how to become a photographer this could be a no-risk opportunity for the engaged amateur photographer who wants to change his/her life situation. As the stock photography business is a very dynamic field it might be difficult to give advice of any persistency, but let my try anyway.

How to become a photographer through work for stock photo agencies

Income for photographers from stock photography has been under attack for years but the kinds of photography that keeps the income and position best is related to up to date model released photography with a focus on lifestyle and with a strong conceptual mood.

As that is also an area that are most difficult for the general amateur photographer to deliver of professional quality I strongly recommend this field as the focus point for the potential full income professional photographer. The submissions of photos to one or more of the professional photo agencies of this kind of stock photography will be able to direct the person who wants to become a full time professional photographer.

This will come through the continuously improvement of his or her style for shooting, as stock photography is a tuff marketplace with rather fast response to trends and buyers requests. At the same time these photos might generate enough income to support further training to become a full time photographer.

Let me underline that I cannot recommend the potential photographer to engage in micro stock agencies. They pay too little, and you will have too many pictures flowing around in cyberspace without having enough control of their use.

May be my advice on life style shooting isn't making you happy as your dream was to become a wildlife photographer or a similar kind of specialization as a photographer. Never mind, include that kind of stock photos among your submissions to your chosen stock photo agency and let the sales reports tell you what to focus on. But remember the life style photos.

Commissioned photography as an alternative to stock photography to become a photographer

An alternative to the approach mentioned becoming a stock photographer is to focus on the needs of individual customers and to develop a reputation as one of the freelance photographers available for special photo needs like:

- Shooting special events in a company

- Private weddings for couples that cannot afford to hire a fully professional wedding photographer

- Photography for small business' websites, including product photography.

- Pet photography, as many people have their pet as their most valued partner in life. Pet photographers specializing in taking pictures of people's dogs, cats, hamsters, birds etc. might be able to do very well.

- Equine photography. Similar to pet photographers equine photographers might be able to get a decent income part-time as a path to becoming a full time photographer. Often the sessions on equine photography can be scheduled for weekends making it easier to combine with a full time job.

The beauty of this answer to the question how to become a photographer is that some of these kinds of photography can be combined with submitting selected pictures of the commissioned work for stock agencies; just keep in mind to get all needed kinds of releases.

Well established areas populated with lots of party photographers, school photographers, travel group photographers etc. might be difficult to dig into, unless you have a nerve for it and want to go for it. To run a portrait studio might also be a difficulty part time area but to offer portraits etc. at homes of people might be an option, too.

Conclusion: To become a photographer through engagement in stock photography might be your best option.

Grab a free subscription of Stock Photo News at http://www.stockphotonews.com/subscribespn.htm

Soren Breiting is the editor of Stock Photo News.

How to Guarantee Sharp Photographs!

By Dan Davenport

There are several ways to take sharp pictures, a tripod - which is not always very convenient, a table top tripod used as a chest-pod, which is certainly an improvement, or just holding the camera better to insure a steady, unshaking platform for your photography. Of course, some cameras today have an anti-shake feature that helps, but this usually only works in lower lighting situations. For normal daylight shots, this technique will get you the sharp photographs that you want.

How do you hold your camera to get the sharpest photos?

It starts with the left hand. Hold your left hand with the palm up and fingers pointing away from you. Then lay the camera in your palm. When your elbow is pressed against your side, your left hand, your forearm, and your elbow form a solid stable base for your photographs. Your fingers will curl naturally around the lens to create an unshakeable platform. And if your camera has a manual zoom, your fingers will be right there to adjust the zoom to just the composition that you want.

Next, firmly wrap the fingers of your right hand around the camera body with your index finger ready on the shutter release. From this position also, your thumb will fall conveniently on the zoom control if your camera has a motorized zoom. And some of the other controls that might be used during photography will also be there, "under your thumb."

Carefully compose your photo in the viewfinder, zooming to just the right composition, then just as carefully, squeeze the shutter release - don't jerk it. This will get you the sharp photos that will make the large blowups that you want to hang on the wall.

The strangest part is taking vertical photos. From the basic position, most people raise their right arm high to switch the camera to vertical. With your left arm waving around in the air, you lose a great deal of the support that you gain from the left hand. Instead, for vertical shots, LOWER your right arm so that BOTH arms are now under the camera ... even more support. You will probably find it convenient to release the shutter with your thumb instead of your index finger, but the principle is the same... carefully squeeze the shutter release, don't jerk it.

This technique will get you the sharpest photos you can get without resorting to a tripod. But don't take the tripod out of your gadget bag. There are always times when you do can use it, and you will get sharper photos when you do.

You can read an illustrated version of this article [http://greatphototools.com/How-to-Guarantee-Sharp-Photographs.html]here.

For more free articles chock full of great photography tips, go to http://greatphototools.com/Articles.html

Dan Davenport has been involved in photography for more years than he cares to think about. He worked for Minolta Cameras for over 30 years and taught photography as well as developing the Minolta School of Photography which evolved into The Maxxum Experience photo education seminars. He wants photographers to take the best photos they can and encourages them to proudly display their work for all to see.

Photography - Understanding White Balance

By Stephen J Carter

If you read digital camera reviews you will come across the term "white balancing" again and again. Although the term sounds esoteric, it simply refers to the way you can correct for color casts in your final images.

For example, if under a given set of lighting conditions your shots of a perfectly white polystyrene foam surface produce images with a slightly blue color cast, then you will need to know how to white balance your images for that particular lighting situation. Once you have made the appropriate camera settings, the information will be recorded along with your image in RAW format so that the white balancing information can be applied to the final printable image. This is typically a JPEG file.

So what is the cause of these color shifts?

Photographers who still use film stock may be able to attribute some portion of a color shift to the characteristics of the film itself. This, of course, is not the case for digital photography, where the chemical nuances of film emulsion have been removed from the digital imaging process. Most color casting, then, comes from the lighting source used to illuminate the scene before the camera. Fluorescent lighting, for example, can add a slightly green color shift to images, while a blue cast may result from the diffuse sunlight of an overcast day.

This color bias is sometimes described in terms of an equivalent color temperature. Bodies which radiate the same neutral color spectrum as the sun are said to have a color temperature of around 5000 degrees Kelvin, whereas cooler bodies radiate more in the red portion of the spectrum, and hotter bodies are shifted to the blue.

As an example, the deep red hue of candlelight is typical of a body radiating at around 1000 degrees Kelvin, while the diffuse light of a heavily overcast day is closer to 9000 degrees Kelvin.

On the one hand, talking about color shifts in terms of the equivalent temperature of the light source may be technically useful, but for the average photographer it will likely only lead to confusion. For this reason, you will usually find on the back side of your digital camera, a chart that shows the equivalent white balancing modes to offset the effects of different lighting conditions, and no mention of color temperatures is made.

In addition to an auto white balancing mode (AWB) in which the camera itself tries to figure out the best white balancing setting to use, there are several other manual modes that can be selected. A cloud icon, for example, indicates the white balancing offset that ought to be selected if the scene is being bathed by the light of a fully overcast sky. This setting will compensate for the bluish cast that would be seen in the absence of a color correction. The correction for the generally neutral effect of direct sunlight is typically represented with an icon that depicts the sun.

One way to correct for white balancing, at least on a point-and-shoot digital camera, is to monitor the scene before your camera using your LCD screen. If the image appears too bluish (high temperature light source) you can adjust the white balancing to shift the image slightly to the red. Most digital SLRs use the LCD screen for image playback only, so you may have to take a test shot and view the result first, or if your camera supports it, you can bracket your white balancing (record a triple of each photograph with varying amounts of white balancing added to each), and then select the best result.

The trouble with this approach, however, is that it is somewhat subjective. A more accurate means to correct white balancing is to look for an element in the scene which is white and adjust your white balancing setting to ensure that the white object renders as true white. Carrying a white object with you, such as a white handkerchief, or white card, that can be inserted into the scene, can be very useful.

This is especially the case where the scene itself may predominately contain objects that are either blue or red, since this may cause the camera to select the wrong white balancing if left to itself to decide (in auto white balancing mode). As an example, if you were photographing blue icebergs in bright sunlight your camera might assume the blue coloration was due to a blue color shift caused by clouds and then try to reduce the amount of true blue in the final image.

By being aware of the causes of color shifts, and analyzing your images, you will find that over time you get better at making the needed white balancing correction before taking your photographs. But even if you have yet to get the hang of this while shooting, don't forget that you can often correct your mistakes simply by working directly with the RAW format image after the event. This is one of the real advantages of working with digital images.

To help you select a suitable digital camera to get started with, I have put together an article for you about how to find the right Beginner Digital Camera

Whether you need a simple point-and-shoot model, or a more complex digital SLR model, you will find the answers, and greatly discounted digital camera offers, at http://www.bestdigitalcameradiscounts.com/

Techniques For Photographing Buildings

By Suzanne Vandegrift

There are incredible single structure buildings throughout our country, and the world, that are perfect subjects for photographers. The reflection of a city's nighttime skyline reflecting in its river makes an absolutely beautiful picture. You can photograph one building or an entire skyline, and no two pictures will turn out the same, if you vary the approach to your subjects, photograph the unique, vary your images by shooting at times in black and white, shoot at different times of day, and in different types of weather. A stormy day can add a lot of character to an image.

You can't get much more unique than the headquarters for the Longaberger Company located in Newark, Ohio. Dave Longaberger decided it would be a great idea to have the corporate office building designed and built to represent their product, baskets. That's right, he wanted their office building to be in the shape of a giant basket. And, even though most people didn't take him seriously, his dream was realized on December 17, 1997. Shaped like a double-handled basket, it's one of the world's most creative buildings. So, if you're in Newark, Ohio, don't miss the opportunity to add the Longaberger building to your collection of unique photographs. Take your camera bag and photograph it from several angles to get the full, incredible effect so you can amaze your friends and family.

There are few buildings more intriguing than a lighthouse. These are truly some of the most beautiful structures available to photograph anywhere in the world. The east coast of the United States is peppered with many lighthouses of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Some are still functioning, although the days of wick trimming and oil filling have long since passed. Some are occupied as residences, some are abandoned, some are even romantic Bed and Breakfasts. There are lighthouses you can easily drive to and those you can't get to without a boat.

Maine has over 60 lighthouses and there are a few that get more than there share of photographic attention. But, there is one that stands out as being constantly photographed, rain or shine. It's the Cape Neddick Lighthouse, near the entrance to the York River at the north end of Long Beach near York, Maine. The lighthouse is still an active aid to navigation and the building and grounds are not open to the public. But, if you take your camera bag and equipment to nearby Sohier Park, you can get some awesome shots of this majestic structure that has been standing since 1879.

Nubble Light, which it's also known as, is beautiful to photograph all year-round. You can unpack your camera bag in the park and spend the day taking shots of the lighthouse as the light changes and casts different shadows and illuminates it until the sun begins to set. A magical time to visit is during the holidays. The Saturday after Thanksgiving the lighthouse is decorated with hundreds of white lights. It is a breathtaking view through the lens of your camera. And, the pictures you get would make beautiful Christmas cards.

Every city and town has their own uniqueness. There are structures in your town you probably haven't really looked at as you would through the eyes of a tourist. New buildings, old buildings, buildings that are falling down all have a quality that when caught on film, tell a story. So take your camera bag, pack you tripod and other accessories and go out and look for the unique, the beautiful buildings that are just around the corner.

Suzanne VanDeGrift has developed this article for M-ROCK.COM, manufacturer of exceptional quality camera bags with professional quality

Photographing Our Beautiful Butterflies

By Suzanne Vandegrift

What else do you know that can compare to the magnificent colors you see when you look through your camera lens at a butterfly? Maybe a butterfly sitting on a beautiful brilliant flower. It doesn't get any prettier than that. If you're lucky enough to have a garden with flowers that attract these winged beauties, and you're into photography, hopefully, you've been getting some great shots. But, if that doesn't describe your situation, you may find some of these tips helpful in getting started.

There are three great environments for photographing butterflies. The outdoors, garden settings, and butterfly farms or houses. People have been collecting butterflies for centuries. Catching them, killing them and displaying them on boards and in cases. Catching them on film is a great alternative. The butterfly gets to live and the pictures live on.

You don't have to have a lot of special equipment or a big, expensive camera to begin your butterfly photography. Actually, you may be spending a lot of time getting up and down off the ground to get those great shots. The smaller point and shoot camera and the convenience of a quality fanny pack camera bag would be just perfect for butterfly photography. You'll also need a good helping of patience and a lot of time. You can't go out and call butterflies. You can, however, set yourself up to have the best possible opportunity to find butterflies to photograph.

Butterflies are attracted to colors and scents. If your desire is to photograph butterflies in their natural habitat, you might go out a day or so ahead of time to locate an area that has the right conditions for butterfly photography. A couple good places to look would be fields that are loaded with wildflowers or areas of damp or moist soil. If you live in an area that is lush with forests, rivers, streams, and waterfalls look in those areas for some perfect shots of these magnificent creatures.

If you have a garden filled with flowers of purple, lavender, white, yellow, orange, and red, you should be able to go out your back door, set up your tripod, and wait for the butterflies to appear. Some of the most popular flowers for butterflies are alyssum, dahlias, honeysuckle, impatients, marigolds, petunias, sunflowers, candytuft, and zinnias. You can also help encourage them to your garden by putting out some over ripe fruit or nectar. Butterflies are attracted to the scent of rotting fruit.

Check your background before you're start your photo shoot. Ideally, try to situate yourself so that the background compliments the butterfly. Do your best to frame the shot to eliminate unwanted background items. Get as close to the subject as you possibly can, without scaring it away, so that the butterfly fills the picture. Another way to deal with unwanted background images is to set your camera to blur the background. Butterflies are attracted to flowers that are in the sun rather than the shade, so be positioned properly when taking your shots.

Have your camera bag packed and ready the day before, so you can head out early in the morning. Have extra film or memory cards, extra batteries, and a tripod. As with most photography, the best time to photograph butterflies is either early in the morning or late in the evening. Not only is the lighting best, but the butterflies won't be quite as active during these times of the day when it's cooler. It will give you a little more time to take the shot when the butterfly comes into view. Take as many pictures of the butterfly as you can before it flies away. Don't wait for what you think may be the perfect shot or you may not get a picture at all.

Suzanne VanDeGrift has developed this article for M-ROCK.COM, manufacturer of a Fanny Pack System

Top 12 Image Editing Skills Every Photographer Should Know

By John Huegel

Before you start editing, make sure that you have a good image work flow. This means saving originals in a separate place to prevent you from damaging or destroying the original image. And get familiar with your program's UNDO capability - usually the Ctrl-Z key is a shortcut to undo the most recent image change. Don't forget SaveAs, which allows you to save a copy of the image with another name so you don't disturb the original.

Crop. This tool allows you to remove some of the image. Generally you shape a rectangle around the area you want to keep and the rest is removed. The area inside the rectangle becomes your new image. Related to this tool are the rotate and straighten tools. Rotate allows you to rotate the image, and Straighten does a similar task, allowing you to specify a horizon line or reference point. I recommend to rotate first and then crop after you have the proper orientation.

Brightness and Contrast. This tool lets you increase or decrease the relationship between brights and darks (contrast), and increase or decrease the overall brightness of the image. Combinations of brightness and contrast settings can have very dramatic impact to your image, adding extra "punch" or softening the visual impact. It can also add emphasis to sunsets and other scenic shots. If your image appears flat or dull, this is a good tool to try.

Saturation. This tool is used to increase the color of an image. Used to excess, the result can be artificial, and skin tones can be made to look unnatural. But for floral and outdoor images, this tool can be used to sweeten the color impact of an image.

Resize. This tool is used to change the size and number of pixels, or image dots, in an image file. When sending something to a website for instance, you may want to reduce the image size so that it does not take too long to load. When sending an image to be printed on a large size, you may want to size it larger. Many programs will try to fill in the missing spaces if you attempt to resize an image beyond its original pixel dimensions. Called interpolation, this program can deliver mixed results if you are trying to increase the images size too far beyond its original dimensions. Combined with Crop, this is a good way to preview and prepare an image to be printed in a specific paper size.

Color Temperature/Color Adjust. This tool lets you adjust the image's color temperature. If your camera's white balance was not matched up to the color temperature of the predominant light source, the resulting image can have a color cast that is undesirable. Using this tool, you either choose a color neutral selection (white or grey) in the photo and let the tool shift the color balance to match, or you tweak some settings or sliders to make the image "warmer" or "cooler". It's better to get it right in the camera, but this tool can help rescue photos that otherwise have improper color casts.

Curves and Levels. These tools are a more sophisticated verion of the Brighness and Contrast tools. Levels allows you to change the white, mid and black points of an image and it will shift the image accordingly. It is useful in pushing darks darker, whites whiter, and adding some lightness to midtones. It is useful to bring up skin tones on faces while keeping very bright elements unchanged. Curves is even more flexible, where you can describe a very sophisticated transformation of the original image's characteristics. Both of these tools can also be used to excess, and the result is often surreal or abnormal in appearance.

Clone/Rubber Stamp. This tool lets you remove items from the image or otherwise retouch the image. For example if you have a telephone pole in an otherwise perfect rural image, you can use this tool to duplicate the part of the picture next to the pole and paint over the pole with that section. With some practice, you can edit out glare on glasses, braces, background objects and much more. Related tools include Scratch Remover and Object Remover in some programs.

Eraser. This tool lets you remove sections of an image. This leaves behind a blank spot or hole. It's useful to isolate an object to place on another image, for example, to cut out a person so you can drop them into a location that was not in the original image. A variant of this tool is the Background Eraser.

Layers. Learning to use layers opens up an entirely new world in editing. Basically you create two or more overlays that can have varying amounts of transparency so that you create a new image combining parts of these layers. You can specify how the layers interact with each other, so that one may enhance the color of another. That feature is called the "blend mode". You can also use layers to superimpose items on each other, for example to put your subject in a new location.

Sharpen. This tool lets you increase the edge contrast of the image, which makes small features stand out more. You will generally sharpen only as a last step after resizing, because sharpening emphasis will change with the image size. You can selectively sharpen parts of the images, such as eyes, to draw attention to them. You can also apply a sharpening to the overall image. The Unsharp Mask will let you specify just how small and how much to apply the sharpening effect.

Channel Mixer. This is a tool that allows you to change the amount of red, green and blue in the image. But its real value is in being able to tailor a black and white conversion to include specific amounts of red, green and blue. If you choose "monochrome" as the output, you can mix the red green and blue channels to bring out features that a straight black and white conversion will not be able to do. The defaults include 33% each of red, blue and green. Experiment with 80%/10%/10% of various modes and see how elements like bricks or blue sky or green leaves will change from dark to light in relation to other objects in the image.

1-Step Fix/Smart Fix. This tool often combines much of the above tools into an easy to use dialog that will let you play with many things at once to improve an image. Even if you use this tool most of the time, remember that the individual elements above can be utilized individually to create image enhancements that the simpler tools cannot provide.

Want to learn more? Take a handful of images that you are not totally pleased with, and spend some time using each tool to see how you can expand your creative and editing skills to produce truly great works of photographic art!

John Huegel is a photographer in the Erie, Pennsylvania area who specializes in Seniors, Dance Studio, Families and other groups. He is active in many charitable and volunteer activities in the Erie area. His work can be seen at http://jhphotomusic.com

Improve Your Photos Using These Tips

By Roy Barker

Isn't great when you find that one of your photographs has been absolutely outstanding and everyone comments on it. It can be frustrating when that happens but you don't know how you did it. Learning some techniques can help change all that and almost ensure that almost all your future shots are amazing and good on a regular basis.

Photography Lighting Techniques

Lighting can be either your best friend or worst enemy. Photography lighting techniques can be as simple or as complex as you want. It will depend on what you are shooting. Maybe you want to take photos of cityscapes at night or photos in full sunlight - for good results you will need to understand good photography lighting techniques. Once you understand the basics of photography lighting techniques you will transform your photos into works of art.

Indoor Lighting Photography Techniques

There are different types of lighting you can use for indoor shots. Try using natural lighting that comes from windows, ceiling lights, candles, log fires, and any other indoor lighting. Many photographers use this to give a natural feel to their work. Often, though, there may not be enough natural light indoors. If this is the case, take a tip from portrait photography lighting techniques. Portrait photographers use big lights to flood their subject for the best results. The good thing is you can experiment with the light you have indoors.

Try taking a photo of your subject in different parts of the room using different types of lighting. This will give you an idea of what works. Experiment with the early morning sun streaming through the window then try backlighting the same subject and see the different effects. Indoor lighting subjects include a whole host of techniques and methods. It will become a natural instinct the more you play around with different effects.

Black and White Photography Techniques

Black and white photography techniques can produce some really nice results. If you are using a digital SLR camera, you will most likely have the option to capture your photos in black and white mode. Don't use this mode. Use full colour so you get the full depth of light and shade. Use a photo manipulation program like Adobe Photoshop to transform your image into black and white. If you were just using black and white, you would not have the flexibility to manipulate and play with the output that you now can.

Side lighting is a great way to include fabulous outcomes and effects to black and white photographs. Side lighting will create shadows on ordinary objects and give them a different perspective. This is an effective black and white photography technique that has great results on objects that are highly textured. Experiment by changing the camera angle and different lighting techniques. Use side lighting to enhance your black and white landscapes, people and buildings.

Street Photography Techniques

Street photography can produce some amazing results. They are shots of day to day occurrences; moments in time captured outdoors. A good technique is to sit, watch and listen; focus on what is happening around you. See the world differently. There is nothing more interesting than a candid shot of a moment in time. Here are some street photography techniques that may help you when out on the street:

- Tune into your surroundings. Learn to sense moments of climax such as laughter or loud voices.

- Be relaxed and enjoy your surroundings.

- Use crowded places you can walk in and out of to get your candid street shots.

- Don't be invasive of people's personal space, try using a zoom lens. This will not always work and you can lose some of the emotion you are trying to capture.

- Practice taking shots spontaneously or without raising the camera up to face. Practice taking photos from any position.

There is so much to learn about photography and, the more you learn the more addictive photography becomes.

Roy Barker has provided this site which he commonly refers to for tips on photography techniques.

How Do I Photograph a Wedding?

By Bobby Jonnes

This is one of the most common questions I'm asked.

There are short answers to this question and longer and detailed answers. In this article I will give you a short and to the point explanation of how you photograph a wedding, mainly what shots you must take.

I have to assume that you already have technical competence with your camera equipment; if not then don't even consider photographing a wedding!

There are approximately twenty five to thirty shots that you must capture, that said couples are now looking for you to take many many more shots for them to choose from.

Photographing a wedding is twenty percent camera skills and eighty percent posing and people handling skills.

Make sure you cover at least the following shots: -



Bridesmaids arriving

Groom and best man arriving

Bride and father arriving

A shot of the rings being exchanged

Signing the marriage certificate

Coming down the aisle

Couple standing at front door of church

Throwing the confetti

Bride and groom leaving in car

Multiple shots and varied poses of bride and groom

Multiple shots of bride

Bride and Groom with his family

Bride and groom with her family

Bride and groom with both families

Bride and groom with best man and flower girls

Bride with flower girls

Groom and best man

Bride and best maid

Cutting the cake

First dance



The above is the absolute bare minimum, in other words shots that you daren't miss!

There will be other permutations of family and friends that you should consider. You will also find it helpful to make a request of the group as to whether anyone would like their photographs taken with the bride and groom, this will cover you for possible complaints later, that you didn't invite a relation or friend to be photographed.

During this session which you should aim to cover in no more than one hour you will need good organisational skills. I find it helps to leave the shots of the bride and groom to last. This allows you some privacy with them, which in turn will allow you to capture some more intimate shots as they will be more relaxed.

I hope you have found this brief article helpful.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have written a comprehensive guide on wedding and group photography.

Visit my site for more information Wedding and Group Photography Guide.

Bobby is a photographer and author. He has been commissioned to shoot thousands of events, including weddings.

Black & White Photography Tips

By Ian Pennington

Black and white photography was once thought of as being a thing of the past. Colour photography and technology were leading the way and everything became bright and bold. More recently, however, the art of the monochrome picture has been re-evaluated by many and has become a chosen format by some. By understanding some basic black and white photography tips it is surprising what a difference you can make.

There are some subjects that will always look better if photographed in colour. For example the starting grid of a Formula One race would look fairly lack lustre without the exciting race colours of the cars and drivers. Some scenes can look equally good, although very different, in both black and white and colour. Scenes such as a woodland, for example, can benefit from either format but the two pictures would have a very different feel. Some simple black and photography tips can ensure that you bring out the shade and shapes in your pictures and this will result in an added depth that is often missing with colours.

Portraits can be given a lovely timeless feel if taken in black and white. It is almost like losing one of your senses. If you shut your eyes you will find that you are able to hear better. It is similar with photography. If you take away the colours, you will tend to see more deeply into a face. Some black and photography tips regarding the taking of portraits include consideration of texture. It is best to have your subject dressed in plain clothes as too much pattern can draw the attention. However, add some texture to bring depth into the frame. This may mean in the background. Perhaps you could use a brick or stone wall as a back drop. Alternatively, you could use texture in the clothing. Try woollen sweaters in place of smooth cotton tee shirts.

Consider the content of your pictures and try to incorporate some interesting shapes. Either similar or contrasting shapes will create interest, but be careful to keep things simple and well constructed. Try to structure the shapes so that they have a relevance to each other. You can get some great black and white photography tips just by looking at others people's work and trying to evaluate their reasoning behind the construction of the shapes in their pictures.

Black and white photography tips, as well as advice on all aspects of the art, are available on the internet, very often freely. If you become interested and think that you would like to become involved in photography either as a hobby or as a profession, there are many courses available at colleges, often on a part time basis. You may also find that there is a photography club in your area where you can meet others with a similar interest and sometimes with work to exhibit.

Ian Pennington is an accomplished niche website developer and author.

To learn more about photography, please visit Photography for Beginners for current articles and discussions.

Tips For Great Flower Photographs

By John Huegel

I have a soft spot for flowers. Some of the most amazing prints I have ever seen were enlargements of flowers - simple, yet very captivating, with color, shape, symmetry and patterns.

It is not difficult to take great flower photos. And in the summer and fall seasons, there are many kinds of flowers to photograph. Photos of flowers make great wall prints, note cards and screen savers. Here is a dozen tips for taking great flower photos. The nice thing about them is that you don't need a model release!

TIP 1 - Macro Mode. You'll need to get up close, so choose a camera/lens that can focus close to the lens. You can get close-up lens attachments for some lenses. Many point-and shoot digital cameras have a "flowers" setting which is designed to get up close and focus well. When choosing a lens, note the minimum focusing distance (MFD) to see how close you can shoot and still get crisp focus.

TIP 2 - The Right Light. You will need to have enough good light to capture the flower, especially if you need to use a higher F-stop (see below). Often the on-camera flash won't project well for flowers, as it's designed to shoot out farther. Also, direct noonday sun is often too harsh, so you may want to diffuse it with some white cloth. You can always hook up some continuous or flash lighting if you would like.

TIP 3 - Low ISO. This means that you want the highest quality setting on your camera, or with film, the lowest ISO, finest-grain film. This also means more light requirements than higher ISO.

TIP 4 - Stable Camera. You'll want to have perfectly sharp images, and you don't want camera shake to ruin them. I use a monopod for 90% of my outdoor shots. It doesn't completely stabilize the camera, but it is great for shots down to about 1/60 second. A tripod is even better, and the best is a tripod with a camera release cord or remote.

TIP 5 - Water Droplets. Water drops on the petals are a great addition, as they pick up and reflect light and other images. I sometimes take a small spray bottle to create droplets on petals. Just be careful that you and your camera are not reflected in each droplet.

TIP 6 - Choose the Background. Usually the background will be blurred out from the rest of the image, as the macro nature of the shot narrows the depth of focus. But that doesn't mean you can ignore it. Before you take the shot, look at what falls behind the image and either move your perspective, or insert something behind your flower as a new background. Sometimes a piece of black cloth or felt is a good neutral background.

TIP 7 - Bugs! If you can get bees or butterflies on the flowers, it adds a dimension of motion and life to the flower.

TIP 8 - Avoid Wind. If you are outdoors, even the slightest breeze can move your flower to the point of causing blur on your exposure. You may want to hold the flower steady somehow, or wait until the wind has died. Or you can try to block the wind with an object or body.

TIP 9 - Depth of Focus. With flowers in macro mode, you may have to open up the f-stop to F/11 or higher to allow the entire flower to be in focus. If you keep the f-stop open, only part of the flower may be sharp. Also note that if the camera plane is not parallel to the top of the flower, you may have areas out of focus.

TIP 10 - Composition. Are you after a flat-on, centered shot? Or a group of flowers with one in sharp focus? Often moving just a couple of inches down in that flowerbed will dramatically change the resulting images.

TIP 11 - Shutter Speed. You want low ISO, moderately high f-stop and very still images. Usually that means a slower shutter to let in more light, and you managing the movement of the camera and flowers. With point and shoot, the camera tries to do this for you. With an SLR, I might suggest to start by setting ISO manually to 100, the F-stop to f/8 to f/11, and use Aperature Priority and Exposure Compensation to choose the best shutter and exposure.

TIP 12 - Editing. I'll often boost the contrast and saturation. You can use the levels or contrast tools to make darks darker and lights lighter. Often punching the sharpness will also add some zing to the image. Many editors have "unsharp mask" tools for this. Experiment with various black and white conversions and edits to make that flower image really stand out!

So, to summarize: High sensitivity, no motion, good depth and composition, and good editing. You'll end up with wonderful flower images.

John Huegel is a photographer in the Erie, Pennsylvania area who specializes in Seniors, Dance Studio, Families and other groups. He is active in many charitable and volunteer activities in the Erie area. His work can be seen at http://jhphotomusic.com

Wildlife Photography - The Challenge of a Good Composition

By Andrew Goodall

Composition in nature photography comes easy to some, but many new photographers struggle to find their balance. This is especially true where wildlife is concerned.

There is a bit of false wisdom about that says: "You should never put your animal right in the middle of the photo - only to the left or the right." This is simply not true, but it is a notion that causes all sorts of anxiety for new photographers.

If you don't put your animal in the middle of the photo, where do you put it? And what do you do with all that extra space? Well, it may (or may not) encourage you to know that there is not really any hard and fast rule to answer these questions. Like all things in composition, it really depends on your own sense of visual balance. So good composition requires you to have the confidence to trust your own judgment.

That doesn't mean you are on your own when it comes to learning composition. The answers to the following questions may help you if you are struggling to get started.

Question #1. Can I Position My Subject In The Middle? In certain situations this can work just fine. If you are shooting a portrait-style photo where the animal subject fills up much of the frame, it can make sense to place it right in the centre. This approach can seem perfectly natural, especially when the subject is looking right at the camera. In this case there is nothing to indicate a shift to one side or the other, and to do so may just create wasted space.

For this type of photo, where the subject fills most of the picture, it is important to leave a bit of breathing room around the head of the subject. Your picture will look more balanced if there is a little space between the subject and the edge of the frame, rather than showing the subject cramped into the composition.

Question #2. Should My Subject Go On The Left Or The Right? Your answer to this question should be guided by the physical positioning of the subject. As a general rule, it is preferable to have your subject looking toward the middle of the picture, rather than toward the edge of the frame. So if your subject is facing to the left, shift its position a little to the right, and vice-versa.

It is not necessary to move the subject all the way over to one side. In fact many of my wildlife photos show the head of the animal right in the centre of the picture, with the body leading in from one side or the other. So the position of the subject is only slightly to the left or right. The important thing is that there is more space in front of the subject than behind it.

Question #3. What Do I Do With All That Extra Space? If you get the balance right in a portrait-style photo, the extra space will not appear too empty. In fact, it looks quite natural to have a little empty area for your subject to look into.

Problems can arise when you take your photo from further away, with a lot more space around the subject. This is when you really have to do some creative thinking about how to put that extra space to work in your composition.

The more space that appears around the subject, the more information you reveal about the environment it was photographed in. As an artist, it is up to you to make that work for you. I always believe in the principle; "Anything that does not make my photo better, makes it worse." You need to ask yourself if showing more of the surroundings actually adds to the impact of the photo. If not, you may be better to zoom in and eliminate the extra space. However, the surroundings can add interest and impact to a picture if you know how to use them well.

You already know that if your subject is facing to the right, you should position it to the left so that it looks into the picture. In that case, if you have another object that adds interest, you should try to position it to the right - so the animal is facing towards it. The idea is to try to establish a relationship between the animal and the surroundings. If you do this well, all the elements of the composition will be working together, adding to the impact of the entire picture.

For example, imagine a bird on a branch alongside some flowers. If the bird is facing away from the flowers, they are just two random objects in the same photo. But if the bird is facing toward the flowers, your photo tells a completely different story.

This may sound simple, but good wildlife photos are the result of patience, perserverence, and lots of wasted exposures before you get that perfect shot. However, don't think of them as wasted exposures. Every time you press the shutter you add to your experience, and it is with experience that you will begin to trust your instincts and settle on a style of composition that expresses your love of the subject.

Composition, aperture, shutter speed, depth of field...all the essentials of good photography seem simple when they are explained in terms you can understand. Visit http://www.naturesimage.com.au and check out Andrew Goodall's ebook "Photography in Plain English" to discover your own talent for photography. While you are there, subscribe to the online newsletter for even more tips...it's free!

Photographing a Wedding - Camera Technique

By Bobby Jonnes

When photographing a wedding you can use this clever technique to alter the height and perspective of the couple.

Many people ask me what height the camera should be held at to capture the image true to life. This question assumes you want the image to be true to life. Camera height is one technique that you can use to good effect.

The camera height for a full length picture should normally be one that does not require the camera to be tilted to include the full figures. The starting point for it is in the region of the height of just above the subject's waist.

With the camera at this height look into the viewfinder and assess the shot. You may decide to raise or lower the camera to give different stature to the subjects or to cut their apparent height.

On the other hand you may adjust the height because the background is intrusive. For example, although the camera height may be right for the bride and groom, tree branches or other intrusive objects above the bride's head may show if you hold the camera too low.

This type of mistake demonstrates a lack of observation on the part of the photographer, each photograph has to be individually assessed and a suitable judgment made.

The bride and groom can be made to look quite tall by holding the camera lower than normal. This technique can also be used to make short people look taller, however be cautious of the small stout person.

A low viewpoint can also be successfully used to hide unwanted backgrounds, for example litter, fences, signs, and so on. You do need to be careful if you are including more of the sky by taking a lower viewpoint. It is most effective when you are eliminating the sky completely by using bushes and shrubs trees etc for a background.

A higher viewpoint can hide the sky but your shots will suffer from making the subjects look smaller.

This type of shot is typical of tall photographers working with camera hand held. It is definitely not a good technique for small customers!

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have written a comprehensive guide on wedding and group photography.

Visit my site for more information Wedding and Group Photography Guide

Bobby is a photographer and author. He has been commissioned to shoot thousands of events, including weddings.

Underwater Cameras For Getting Serious About Underwater Photography

By J Allen

There comes a time when most all aspiring underwater photographers realize that they've got to make a serious investment toward upgrading their underwater cameras and accessories in order to consistently get professional results.

And if they haven't already gone digital, then they need to do so right away because that's the first step to shorten the learning curve. Don't misunderstand, film cameras have their place, and can certainly produce stellar results. But because they can't offer the instantaneous feedback of digital, they take lots longer to become proficient with.

So the first step is to get rid of that cheap, $90 underwater film camera, or worse the $20 u/w disposable version. It was fine for generating interest but now you need an underwater digital camera that you can get serious with. No need to break the bank starting out, but be prepared to spend several hundred dollars at a minimum.

If that sounds like a lot, get over it fast because that's just the price of entry. Either that or find a cheaper hobby. You've no doubt already figured out that scuba diving isn't a cheap sport, but its cost will eventually pale in comparison to what you'll likely spend on indulging in underwater photography. The upside is it's incredibly fun and satisfying, plus potentially profitable if you choose to pursue that angle.

That being said, you can grow into more expensive gear over time as your skills improve, but to start out, a decent digital camera and housing can be had for around $500 and a good strobe for at least $300 for a single. Don't forget an external media storage card - about $50.

Now don't go shortchanging yourself and skip getting a strobe or external flash. It doesn't matter that the camera has a built-in flash, you still need the strobe. In fact you'll end up rarely using that built-in flash.

The reason is the cameras flash is responsible for the backscatter in your pictures. That's all that snow looking stuff. It's not just from sand or silt being kicked up by the diver ahead of you, it's the reflection off tiny suspended particles in the water and it's almost universally present, even in water that appears totally clear.

You probably noticed that virtually every shot you take with open water in the background has little fuzzy circles all over it. That's backscatter which is caused by your camera flash reflecting off those little particles right directly back into the lens.

It's likely been there all the time but blends in with the background of macro shots. Of course you can turn off the flash, but you know you need it to bring out any kind of color at depth, or else all your shots will be shades of blue or green.

So don't skip out on the external flash or strobe. Altogether you'll spend around a thousand bucks to get started. And this doesn't consider filters, ports, extra lenses for macro, wide angle, or telephoto work, or additional strobes for various lighting effects.

But that can come later. If you get a camera with a decent optical zoom (not digital), and one or two macro settings, all you really need to add might be a good wide angle lens. It's also best to choose gear that allows for adding or removing accessories while underwater.

So where to start. While this article can point you in the right direction, there isn't room to delve into all brands of underwater cameras and compare the different models. You can check out the resource listings that follow for that sort of detail.

However, some brief recommendations would be something like one of the Olympus SW models with the appropriate external housing, or the new SeaLife DC800 which comes with a housing. The Olympus setup will be something under $500 and the SeaLife a bit over. A SeaLife strobe will work for either.

If you've got more coin, check out the DX-1G by Sea & Sea. It's more expensive at about $1000, and a single strobe for roughly $800, but a great camera setup.

Some of the more common other names you'll hear are Canon and Nikon for cameras, and Ikelite for external housings. And many of these rigs will be setup with Sea & Sea strobes.

Everyone has their own preferences, and you will no doubt develop your own, but the initial suggestions above are for easy-to-setup equipment that's made by companies who've specialized for years in gear for use underwater.

Find details and shop for underwater cameras here, or check out the reviews and photo tips on our website at http://www.underwatercamerasplus.com/

How to Capture the Moment in Your Photos

By Jennifer Thompson

The holidays are coming up, meaning tons of photo opportunities. My aunt is the photographer in our family and she loves taking pictures of us eating. I don't mean with our mouths full, I mean with our mouth wide open getting ready to take a bite out of that turkey leg. How humiliating, but she has mastered capturing the moment of us looking like vultures.

I, on the other hand, have always loved taking pictures. My favorite pictures are the ones of my kids sleeping, they're so surreal. Motherhood is the highlight of my life and I want to capture every moment of it. My pictures never seem to meet my expectations. I wanted to take better quality photos, so I could learn how to 'capture the moment'. I did some research and lots of practice!

First and foremost, you need a good understanding of your camera and its abilities. I don't know about your camera, but mine came with a 200+ page manual, a little overwhelming, to say the least. I suggest starting with the settings and testing them in different types of light, with and without using the flash. Knowing which setting to use and whether or not to use the flash is key. Using natural light is best. Take photos in the early morning or late afternoon, when the sunlight is more flattering. Too much light may cast shadows, so you may want to use the flash to eliminate natural shadows, like a nose.

Apply the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is more of a guide than a rule. It's basically dividing an image into nine equal parts creating horizontal and vertical balance. Just imagine that your photo is a tic-tac-toe board. By positioning your focal point at the intersections of the tic-tac-toe board you will create more professional-looking and intriguing photos. For example, when photographing landscapes, use the horizontal grid lines to place the sky or water horizons and when photographing people, place their eyes at the horizontal and vertical intersections. The vertical grid lines are guidelines for things that are taller than they are wide like people, waterfalls and skyscrapers. Keep the rule of thirds in mind while experimenting with some of your current photos. Open them with a photo editing program and crop them to see what impact it might have on your photos.

Be sure you're on the same level as your subject. Don't be afraid to take a few steps forward, having your subject fill most of the frame helps capture emotion that you wouldn't have noticed farther away. This allows you to get up-close and personal, to capture more of your focal point than the background. Also, you want to be aware of what's going on in the background in your pictures. Make sure it's not too busy. Shoot at the highest resolution available. If you want to print your images or enlarge a part of the image, you'll get the best results from a larger file.

Last, but not least, have fun and take tons of photos. Have your camera ready at all times. The more photos you take, the better your chances are of "capturing the moment". Expect to only have a couple of great shots for about every 30 pictures that you take. Be sure to use rechargeable batteries. We have an extra set so we can take pictures while the other set is charging. Oh yeah, don't forget to have enough memory capacity for all the pictures you're going to be taking.

Now is the time to practice your photo techniques, so you'll be ready for the holiday hustle and bustle. Free Digi Scrapbooking is a place where you can find free kits, tutorials, tips & tricks, inspiration, how-to guides and the latest news in digital scrapbooking.

How to Photograph Groups - Tips on Photographing Groups

By Bobby Jonnes

How do you photograph a group and make it look good. This is a question I am often asked.

First thing to remember when photographing groups is that they need to be controlled. You as the photographer need to take charge and tell them exactly what you want them to do.

There will be occasions where you have plenty of time to set the group up, and there will be events, for example weddings, where you don't have much time.

Settings are important too, I'll talk a bit more about that later in this article.

There are a number of aspects to keep in mind when photographing groups. The first is to consider the size of the group. If it is no more than say twelve or so, you can get away with composing it in a single smooth and flowing composition. If it's a much bigger group you should consider a number of smaller tighter compositions within the bigger group.

Secondly is it a formal or informal group? By this I mean you would choose your composition depending on both the size and expected formalities of the group.

So a group family portrait will usually be less formal than say a group of church elders.

With the church elder group which normally numbers around twelve, you could pose four at the front sitting on chairs, four standing behind them, positioned so that you can see them in between the seated row, and four standing on a step at the back. You would turn each pair of two on the left of center to face slightly inward and each pair on right of center to face slightly inward.

You would check that they all look similar, for example all to have jackets either buttoned or unbuttoned, not a messy mixture of both!

You would check that you position all of their hands in a similar fashion, i.e. all at their sides or all behind. Never pose men with their hands clasped in front of them, it doesn't look right!

Settings for photographing groups are important too, be aware that the presence of steps will enable you to separate the group into tiers, whilst flat ground will present you with the challenge of arranging the group so that all can be seen!

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have written a comprehensive guide on wedding and group photography.

Visit my site for more information Wedding and Group Photography Guide

Bobby is a photographer and author. He has been commissioned to shoot thousands of group events, including weddings.

Tips For Successful Night Or Low Light Photography

By Peter Phun

Twilight is a magical time.

Just because the Sun is down, doesn't mean you should put away your camera.

When the Sun sets, a different looking world exists for photographers. Colors don't appear the way they do in daylight.

Instead, colors display based on your camera's white balance setting and how that setting matches the various light sources in your scene.

Backgrounds become less distracting.

Street lights and lit building interiors give you outlines and shapes of various colors.

Chances are not everything in your scene is lit. So what you see in your viewfinder is very close to what you'll get if you expose carefully and properly.

People in your scene don't matter as much unless you want them to. Passers-by don't register in your image.

Even if they do, they are a blur unless you "freeze them" with a flash.

Cars show up as trails of red and amber lights. Skies take the color or aura of the city's lights especially if there are low lying clouds to reflect it.

Compared to other subjects, night photography doesn't require a whole lot of equipment. The following are necessities:

A steady tripod

a cable release to trip the shutter. Most people can get by using the self-timer. The key is to not shake the camera when you trip the shutter.

a flashlight to illuminate the knobs and dials of your camera.

optional-- a portable flash with lots of batteries

You pretty much will get what you see in your viewfinder.

You don't have to worry about trying to light anything except when you want to include a person in the picture. But I'll discuss that later.

The various elements in your picture lights itself freeing you to just concentrate on your composition and exposure.

Fountains tend to have spots and colored lights on them, christmas trees are never displayed in public without multicolored lights and beautiful majestic architecture in most civic centers are usually brightly lit up showcasing a city's pride.

Here's how to set up:

Change the ISO on your camera to 1600 or whatever the maximum number is.

If you have a digital SLR, attach your longest focal length lens on your camera and take a light reading. The idea here is to use the narrower field of view so that your lightmeter can give you a more accurate light reading. If you have spot meter reading mode on your camera, that will give you a similar result.

Take note of the exposure reading you get in step 2.

Calculate that exposure reading for ISO 200

Switch lenses to a wide angle or even a more "normal" focal length lens and compose your shot. Mount your camera to the tripod.

Tighten all the axes on your tripod head so that your camera doesn't move in during the exposure.

Finally, set the camera to the self-timer mode. Some cameras give you a choice of 2 seconds or 10 seconds. The whole idea is, you don't want to jostle the camera when you press down on the shutter. Let the camera settle on its own and 2 seconds ought to be enough for that.

Calculating Exposure

Making your camera's CCD or CMOS more sensitive to light makes it easier for you to get a light reading.

If you leave your camera's ISO at 100 or even 200, your meter might not register a reading especially if the scene is something lit only by moonlight.

Remember that there are always 3 components to exposure: ISO, aperture and shutter speed. For the sake of our discussion, let's say when you pointed your camera in step 2 at the scene, your meter recommends 1/15 sec at f 2.8 ISO 1600.

If you haven't read this yet, then just take my word on this. High ISO settings yield images that are extremely noisy. That's the equivalent of grain in the analog or film world.

So what we'll do next is figure out equivalent exposure at say ISO 200. How did I arrive at a shutter speed of 1/2 second for an aperture of f2.8 when I switched the ISO from 1600 to 200?

ISO 200 is 3 f-stops less sensitive than ISO 1600. There are 2 ways for me to do achieve equivalent exposure. Let's examine the first method which entails leaving the aperture the same at f 2.8 and only changing the shutter speed.

That means I'm only increasing the time the shutter stays open, allowing in more light by the same 3 f-stop factor.

So I'll need to set the shutter speed from 1/15>1/8>1/4>1/2 sec (counting from 1/15 sec > 1/8 sec> 1/4 sec>1/2 sec = 3 stops)

Now that you have your exposure for an aperture of f 2.8, let's say your subject has some depth and you want to be sure more of it is in focus. You can figure your exposure by changing the just the aperture, leaving your ISO the same at 200.

Let's say you decide you want make your picture at f11 giving you more depth-of-field. You again have to increase the time the shutter stays open in the same ratio or f-stop to get the equivalent exposure. F11 lets in 4 stops or 4 times less light than F 2.8.

So you'll need to set a shutter speed of 4 whole seconds. (counting the aperture settings from f2.8 > f 4> f 5.6 sec>f 8.0>f 11 = 4 stops)

(counting the shutter speed settings from 1/2 sec>1 sec> 2 sec> 4 sec = 4 stops.)

The second alternative to achieve equivalent exposure, opening the aperture to let in more light, is not always practical because I would be restricted to using my "fastest" lens, a 50 mm f1.4.

Even that lens has physical limits--it's widest aperture is f 1.4. The resulting image would still be underexposed by 1 stop. I would need to buy a 50 mm f 1.2 lens. Have you priced one of these? Canon makes one for about $1500.

If you have a tripod, you have the luxury of dropping your shutter speed without worrying about camera shake. That is often your best option because you really don't want to be making pictures the whole time at your widest aperture whether it is f 1.4 or f 2.8.

At those apertures, focus is critical since the depth-of-field is very shallow. If you happen to set up on a pedestrian bridge and people are working on it as you are making the exposure, then you might have to wait for a lull in foot traffic.

Read an illustrated version of this article on [http://peterphun.com/blog/2008/08/05/night-and-low-light-photography/#more-311]night photography

Peter Phun is an adjunct photography instructor at Riverside City College. He is a freelance photographer, web designer and stay at home dad. He previously worked as a staff photographer for 18 years at The Press-Enterprise, Southern California's 4th largest daily newspaper. Peter is the webmaster for the Mac user group in the Inland Empire. For more information about this Riverside based photographer, visit http://www.peterphun.com

Tips For Taking Better Pictures of Your Kids

By Peter Phun

Here are some suggestions to help you as you document your children's lives.



Photograph at their level. Get down close. Show the world from their perspective.

Shoot a lot. If you're using a digital camera, there's no waste, so why not? Even the most mundane activities can be give you great memories.A great benefit of shooting a lot? They'll get used to you and the camera and ignore you after awhile.

Pre-focus if you have manual focus capability. If they're on a swing, focus manually on a spot when they'll be swinging through. Then wait and time it. You'll get better results than trying to let your camera chase the focus. If your digital camera doesn't have this manual focus capability, try this. Half depressing the shutter to lock the focus then wait for the right time to fully depress the shutter.

Set the exposure beforehand, so all you have to do is compose, making sure the subject is framed the way you want in your viewfinder before tripping the shutter.

Use a long telephoto lens especially if you're in the bright outdoors. This clears out the clutter of the background and isolates your subject. Also gives them some space so that they'll forget about you and stop hamming it up.

Talk to your subject, engage them in conversation. It will help them forget about the camera. Or don't. With kids sometimes you have to play it by ear.

Don't get in their faces the whole time. Not every picture has to show their faces. Try one that shows perhaps how little they are compared to dad's leg or maybe dad's hand. These can be closeups.

Try shooting in monochrome mode or black and white mode.If you don't know much about photo-editing and don't want to learn, look for that setting in your owner's manual but remember to set it back to color afterwards.

Shoot with the highest jpeg quality. If you know photoshop, by all means shoot both jpeg and raw. Having a large digital file is like having a longer zoom because it allows you to crop the picture and still have good resolution to print the cropped image.

Be flexible. Some of thebest pictures of kids are not posed. Keep your camera handy all the time. Point-and-shoot cameras are great for that because they're compact and easy to keep close by.

Pay attention to your shutter speed. If your camera is sophisticated enough to display this setting, try to use a high shutter speed since kids seldom stay still. A side benefit of this is that you'll have a shallow depth-of-field or zone of sharpness so that your subject will be emphasized if the camera is correctly focused on your child. If you're using a digital SLR, try shutter priority with a shutter speed set at 1/500th of a second, letting the camera select the aperture automatically.

Study and analyze the lighting. There are 2 reasons. When you preview your image after taking the picture, how do the skin tones look? You may have to change the white balance if you find you can't live it how it looks. If that doesn't work, maybe turn the room light off and just let one light source dominate. 2nd reason. Is the lighting too harsh? Cameras can only record a certain range of highlight and shadow, something has to give. You may have to use a flash to boost the shadow areas to tame the contrast.

Use the self-timer. If you see a wonderful moment and the light is wonderful, don't forget to include yourself in the picture. Set it up and get in the picture. This will naturally make it more fun for your child.

Read a more detailed, illustrated version on this article about [http://peterphun.com/blog/?p=71]how to photograph your kids.
Peter Phun is an adjunct photography instructor at Riverside City College. He is a freelance photographer, web designer and stay-at-home dad. He previously worked as a staff photographer for 18 years at The Press-Enterprise, Southern California's 4th largest daily newspaper. Peter is the webmaster for the Mac user group in the Inland Empire. For more information about this Riverside based photographer, visit http://www.peterphun.com