Digital cameras make picture-taking easy and free after the original camera purchase. But you might find the pictures you take of people don't show what you had expected. You can use your camera for high quality portraits. With a bit of planning and practice you can create images that meaningfully portray your baby, child, pet, friend or the whole family.
For good results you have to know how to use your camera under varying conditions. Extreme close-ups are wonderful, but only with the right camera settings. Flash lighting can help or it can wash out a scene. Experiment with different times of day, in close and far away. Try light against dark, and dark against light. If your camera lets you manually change speed, set it for the fastest exposures. Your subjects are going to move at unexpected times. Check what you see in the viewfinder against the final image. You can make adjustments when you know how your camera acts.
Take three pictures for every image you want. Often some small difference in the shots will mean one of the three is outstanding. A wonderful feature of digital cameras is how painless it is to erase bad results.
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
In real estate sales the best results are gotten with location, location, location. In the arts, simplify, simplify, simplify are the rules to follow. Great photography, like all visual art, will direct the viewer to some aspect of an image, eliminating anything extraneous. When you frame a photograph, compose the image as an artist does. Capture the important elements and no others. Keep it simple.
Be aware of the entire scene around your subject. Professional photographers and artists exclude anything that doesn't contribute to the portrait. You can do that, too. Set a scene, or frame a scene that focuses on your subject. Then ruthlessly remove anything that doesn't add to the scene.
This isn't easy. When you look at anything you mentally dismiss what you see that doesn't matter to you as you look. You don't really "see" it. This is the reason eyewitnesses are notoriously poor at remembering details of a crime. They are not mindfully attending to what they see as it occurs; it only has meaning afterwards, when the details are lost. With a camera you must note everything framed within the shot. Shadows, socks on the floor, chain link fencing, telephone poles and coffee tables can interfere with the real subject you want to portray. Most people rely on their own mental focus when they look at a scene. With a camera, you must rely on the camera's focus. Don't look at only what you want to see or know is there; look at what you do see. Use the viewfinder to focus on the subject and anything that adds to the picture story. Remove everything else. If you cannot remove something from the view, then close in your focus on the subject alone.
Sometimes you can play with background scenery in a photograph. For example, rather than letting a background building appear to be growing out of your subject's shoulder, position her so that it looks like she is holding the distant building in the palm of her hand. If she's near a statue have her pose like the statue.
Professional photographers use drapes for backgrounds, simple bits of furniture such as stools and benches and many points of focus to ensure they capture the images they want. These all simplify the backdrop of the portrait. You can do the same.
Decide on Your Subject
The subject of your photograph isn't the person; it's an aspect of the person that is important. So decide on the real subject of your images before you shoot.
Play with your baby. Watch how he examines something new, or splashes in the bath, or eats Cheerios. If he is fascinated by pinwheels or tearing newspaper, you can see it in his face, hands and posture. That is an image that expresses your baby. The fascination in the activity is your subject.
If your toddler is an explorer, she'll give you thousands of opportunities for great portraits. A close-up of her rifling through the kitchen cabinet, or discovering the backyard gate, will always touch you. If your child is adventurous she probably will get in to messes. If you can wait before you scrub her off, grab your camera and take a few shots. The story in those pictures in the real subject.
Think about your baby and what one or two things make you smile. The nape of his neck is an example. Set a scene with him, with no shirt, sitting on a solid color rug or blanket. Give him something to examine that is new to him. Then sit behind him and take 5 or 6 shots from the back and side, closer in and farther away. Keep his neck within the middle third of the scene.
If your first thought of your daughter is her field hockey games, shoot her in action, close in and farther away from the field. Focus on her feet, or the concentration in her face, or her hair flying back - whatever reminds you of her now.
Hands can be telling. Photographing an older person can be very effective if they are using their hands to do something they often do. Your grandfather holding the paper as he reads; your mother digging in the garden, tells a lot about the person. If your spouse has a job or hobby, include something of that in your photography.
Family or other group shots offer interesting variables. The dynamics between two individuals in a group can be captured by an alert photographer. The posture of each person, the tilt of their heads and the expressions, describe a relationship.
If you have a tradition of a family photograph every year for a holiday or milestone, try to repeat the setup each time. Changes in the individuals tell a story in their own. For a different sort of group shot, take many pictures, each focusing on a different member of the group, or on the activity all are engaged in (building a sand castle, playing backyard football). This can give you a terrific photographic series when you display the prints together.
Color and Composition
As you become more aware of what is actually captured in the camera's eye you will begin to notice other aspects of the composed image. Colors change. For example, one red pillow can span a full range of reds depending on the light and the juxtaposition of other colored objects nearby. A pet's fur or a person's skin can also be surprisingly different from what you know when photographed. Often glossy black looks blue; very fair skin looks slightly purple or very pink; dark skin can look deeply red. This is both an effect the camera introduces by its own color capture and a function of reality versus human memory. Again, you know what color your subject is, so take care to note what hue the camera captures.
For good results you have to know how to use your camera under varying conditions. Extreme close-ups are wonderful, but only with the right camera settings. Flash lighting can help or it can wash out a scene. Experiment with different times of day, in close and far away. Try light against dark, and dark against light. If your camera lets you manually change speed, set it for the fastest exposures. Your subjects are going to move at unexpected times. Check what you see in the viewfinder against the final image. You can make adjustments when you know how your camera acts.
Take three pictures for every image you want. Often some small difference in the shots will mean one of the three is outstanding. A wonderful feature of digital cameras is how painless it is to erase bad results.
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
In real estate sales the best results are gotten with location, location, location. In the arts, simplify, simplify, simplify are the rules to follow. Great photography, like all visual art, will direct the viewer to some aspect of an image, eliminating anything extraneous. When you frame a photograph, compose the image as an artist does. Capture the important elements and no others. Keep it simple.
Be aware of the entire scene around your subject. Professional photographers and artists exclude anything that doesn't contribute to the portrait. You can do that, too. Set a scene, or frame a scene that focuses on your subject. Then ruthlessly remove anything that doesn't add to the scene.
This isn't easy. When you look at anything you mentally dismiss what you see that doesn't matter to you as you look. You don't really "see" it. This is the reason eyewitnesses are notoriously poor at remembering details of a crime. They are not mindfully attending to what they see as it occurs; it only has meaning afterwards, when the details are lost. With a camera you must note everything framed within the shot. Shadows, socks on the floor, chain link fencing, telephone poles and coffee tables can interfere with the real subject you want to portray. Most people rely on their own mental focus when they look at a scene. With a camera, you must rely on the camera's focus. Don't look at only what you want to see or know is there; look at what you do see. Use the viewfinder to focus on the subject and anything that adds to the picture story. Remove everything else. If you cannot remove something from the view, then close in your focus on the subject alone.
Sometimes you can play with background scenery in a photograph. For example, rather than letting a background building appear to be growing out of your subject's shoulder, position her so that it looks like she is holding the distant building in the palm of her hand. If she's near a statue have her pose like the statue.
Professional photographers use drapes for backgrounds, simple bits of furniture such as stools and benches and many points of focus to ensure they capture the images they want. These all simplify the backdrop of the portrait. You can do the same.
Decide on Your Subject
The subject of your photograph isn't the person; it's an aspect of the person that is important. So decide on the real subject of your images before you shoot.
Play with your baby. Watch how he examines something new, or splashes in the bath, or eats Cheerios. If he is fascinated by pinwheels or tearing newspaper, you can see it in his face, hands and posture. That is an image that expresses your baby. The fascination in the activity is your subject.
If your toddler is an explorer, she'll give you thousands of opportunities for great portraits. A close-up of her rifling through the kitchen cabinet, or discovering the backyard gate, will always touch you. If your child is adventurous she probably will get in to messes. If you can wait before you scrub her off, grab your camera and take a few shots. The story in those pictures in the real subject.
Think about your baby and what one or two things make you smile. The nape of his neck is an example. Set a scene with him, with no shirt, sitting on a solid color rug or blanket. Give him something to examine that is new to him. Then sit behind him and take 5 or 6 shots from the back and side, closer in and farther away. Keep his neck within the middle third of the scene.
If your first thought of your daughter is her field hockey games, shoot her in action, close in and farther away from the field. Focus on her feet, or the concentration in her face, or her hair flying back - whatever reminds you of her now.
Hands can be telling. Photographing an older person can be very effective if they are using their hands to do something they often do. Your grandfather holding the paper as he reads; your mother digging in the garden, tells a lot about the person. If your spouse has a job or hobby, include something of that in your photography.
Family or other group shots offer interesting variables. The dynamics between two individuals in a group can be captured by an alert photographer. The posture of each person, the tilt of their heads and the expressions, describe a relationship.
If you have a tradition of a family photograph every year for a holiday or milestone, try to repeat the setup each time. Changes in the individuals tell a story in their own. For a different sort of group shot, take many pictures, each focusing on a different member of the group, or on the activity all are engaged in (building a sand castle, playing backyard football). This can give you a terrific photographic series when you display the prints together.
Color and Composition
As you become more aware of what is actually captured in the camera's eye you will begin to notice other aspects of the composed image. Colors change. For example, one red pillow can span a full range of reds depending on the light and the juxtaposition of other colored objects nearby. A pet's fur or a person's skin can also be surprisingly different from what you know when photographed. Often glossy black looks blue; very fair skin looks slightly purple or very pink; dark skin can look deeply red. This is both an effect the camera introduces by its own color capture and a function of reality versus human memory. Again, you know what color your subject is, so take care to note what hue the camera captures.
By Chack Norrison. Chack has written on lots of varied topics over the past few years. Have a look at one of his websites Picture People Coupon which gives information about insurance jobs. For visit website click link: http://www.picturepeoplecoupon.com/
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