Learn How To Take Better Digital Photographs
Blurry photos, lens flare, red eye…we all see them in our pictures from time to time. Here are some helpful tips to prevent undesirable effects and take more consistent shots.
1. Blurry Photos
Especially in low-light situations, blurry photos can kill a shot for both amateurs and professionals alike.
Continue reading ‘3 Common Photography Mistakes’
If you’re like me, going out to take pictures means you you’ll probably come back with A LOT of pictures, and every one of them is named with some ridiculously long image number. Well, if you’re running Windows XP, there’s a quick fix that doesn’t require you to rename each file individually. Just highlight all the pictures you want to name, right click the first one and click rename. Type in the name you want and magically all the files are named the same and numbered sequentially.
The Dangers of Digital Zoom
Camera advertisements always mention digital zoom along with the regular optical zoom, but it’s best not to use it. All it does is zoom in and crop to a part of the picture without increasing the quality. You can do this using a photo editor and then you can get the framing of the picture absolutely perfect. When buying a camera, ignore the total zoom number and just look at how much optical zoom the camera has.
When you first download your pictures from your digital camera, convert them to TIF or PNG files. You can save the original JPG so you know you have a copy, but don’t use this file format to edit pictures. Every time you edit a JPG file and resave, quality is lost (my computer even likes to give me warnings for some changes). Converting the file type prevents this problem. Many photographers also simply have their cameras shoot in RAW format instead of default JPG format. This gives you the image almost exactly as it was in the camera without alterations, and is better if you want to do a lot of editing. Most digital cameras have this option, just be aware that the files are much larger.
Want outdoor pictures with richer colors? Try using a polarizing filter. This will reduce glare and reflections, giving your shots improved quality. Can’t get a polarizing filter? Not a problem. Take a pair of quality sunglasses and place them in front of the lens, just be sure not to get the frames in the shot. It’s recommended when using a polarizing filter to position yourself so your subject is at a 90 degree angle from the sun.
Lawren here again and today I have a lesson that I’ve unfortunately had to learn the hard way.
I have a laptop hard drive sitting in a drawer at my parent’s house; it’s been there for months. It’s sitting in a static free bag just waiting until I can save up enough money to get the information off of it. Let’s just say it will be there a while - quality data recovery services are pricey.
The moral of this story? BACK UP YOUR PICTURES!!! Unfortunately this is a lesson that most people learn too late. They only start backing up their information after they’ve suffered a catastrophic hard drive crash.
Fortunately, backing up your photos can be almost painless and quite simple. One easy way to backup your photos is simply to burn them do a CD or DVD (dual layer DVD burners can store 8GB+ on one disc, and a Plextor Blu-ray Disc burner can store 50GB on a single disc).
Of course, you can always just purchase a backup hard drive. Spare hard drives these days are cheap. I’m preferential to those made by Lacie, but any just about any external drive will work.
And then there’s always online backup which not only backs up your photos but also allows you to access your photos even when you’re not at your computer. Many people use photo sharing sites to save their photos, but if you’re serious about your photos, you probably don’t want to do this since few photo sharing sites allow you to save your pictures at full resolution. It’s better to go for the paid photo backup services.
I’ve written an entire article on numerous advantages of digital cameras over film cameras, but that doesn’t mean film is dead.
Bought a great new digital camera? Don’t know why you’re keeping the old film camera? Don’t put the garage sale price tag sticker on that old camera just yet. Film still does have some advantages, such as:
• Increased resolution (for those ever so popular “will you marry me?” billboards)
• Don’t need batteries (more recent point and shoots do, I’m talking the old SLRs)
• Easily accessible media (my local gas station doesn’t sell memory cards quite yet, does yours?)
• Burst mode and no shutter lag. Burst modes on digitals don’t usually take a lot of pictures except on the highest end digital SLRs (which cost over $4,000 and that doesn’t include the lens!)
Candid pictures are great, but sometimes we need to take posed pictures. It seems like you can’t have a family get-together or a birthday party without needing to get a picture of everyone together. Next time you take a posed picture, don’t just tell people to get in a group and smile. If a film director told all the actors to “just smile and say your lines” the movie wouldn’t be very interesting. Well, neither are “stand there and smile” pictures. Telling people exactly how to stand and pose looks unnatural, but picking a location, props, or even a general pose (squish real close and do something silly) can add a bit of fun to your shots.
Take charge of your pictures and watch them come to life.
When you’re taking a picture, try to fill the frame. The sky may be a wonderful color blue, but having it fill half the picture isn’t terribly interesting; we’ve pretty much all seen the sky. Try getting closer or zooming in. Close up shots have more detail and they offer less distractions so the eyes stay focused on your subject. You can also fill that blank space with something interesting, like a cool looking building. Just be sure it adds to the mood of the picture and doesn’t just distract the viewer from the subject. Also, be aware of stray objects in your shot that may appear attached to the subject (hey, when did Jenny get that light post stuck on her head?) You can also try positioning objects like trees or buildings along the edges of your shots to create a natural frame.
