Composing Great Photos at the Beach or a National Park
by David Peterson
How do you get the best shots when you're out and about? Here are some secrets for taking shots at the beach and inside National Parks.
Taking Photos At The Beach
The beach is a fantastic place to not only photograph your family and friends having fun, but you can get some good landscape photography of the beaches or hills as well.
· When taking photos of sandcastles, drop down to the same level as the sandcastle and ensure your family is at the same level
· The summer sun will usually be very bright and harsh. The best light will usually be in the late afternoon or early morning.
· Take your telephoto lens if you have one. Pictures of surfers work really well in closeup.
· Watch for beach animals such as crabs and photograph them using your Macro function.
· Try standing in the water, keeping your camera close to the water and shooting towards the beach for an unusual shot.
· Keep the flash on. This will "fill in" the shadows on their faces (particularly if your subjects are wearing hats)
· Be careful with your camera, as sand and salt water are very harmful substances to get inside your camera!
Taking Photos At National Parks
Natural wonders abound in National Parks. There's so much to photograph: The Animals, Scenery, Your Family!
· When photographing wondrous scenery like waterfalls, focus on that subject but don't make it the only thing in your photograph. Include some sky, or a person for scale.
· Again, keep the flash on to help with shadows on your subject's faces.
· Take advantage of the scenery. When photographing your family and friends, include something of the surrounding area in the photograph as well.
· Try different angles to see if you can make the shot more interesting. Eg shooting upwards from ground level.
Lighting Secrets
by David Peterson
Almost as important as composition is the use of light. Here are some secrets for using light.
# The best outdoors light to be found is at dawn and dusk. Here the light is not as bright as midday, and the sun produces some wonderful reds. Both these help to make a normally ordinary shot look magic by creating a warm glow.
#When you are shooting outdoors, the best way to shoot is away from the sun. Don't have the sun in your photographs because it will overpower the colors and ensure the side of your subject facing the camera is in shadow. Ensure the sun is behind your back.
#Another thing to watch out for is that your subject doesn't squint. We all love to see bright wide eyes, so ensure the sun isn't too bright. This is another reason to shoot at dawn or dusk - you can have the subject facing the sun but not squinting... and you get much better colors in your image at the same time!
#If shooting in sunlight, watch for shadows. Look at the shadow cast by your subject and ensure it doesn't block anything, or look unsightly. Additionally, ensure your own shadow doesn't fall into the picture!
#The best night shots are taken just after sunset. This is where scenes are lit up as if it were night, but there is still a tiny bit of sunlight around to help light the scene and bring out the detail.
#When indoors, try moving your lighting sources around. Lights at lower angles are usually more dramatic than plain overhead lighting.
#Remember the secret about using your flash during the day? It's also possible on most digital cameras to take night shots without a flash. Try setting your ISO speed to 800 or above to ensure the camera is sensitive to very low light.
#Need to use the flash, but it's a bit harsh? Try taping some wax paper over the flash to diffuse the light.
#Want to light a very small object? If you're using your macro setting to take a shot, cut up a plastic milk container and place it around the object. It will diffuse the surrounding light.
Clean your Camera
by David Peterson
If your images always turn out all blurry, it may mean your lens needs a clean. Most high end cameras come with threads to which you can attach a SkyLight (or UV) filter. This helps to protect the lens from not only dirt, but scratches. Cheaper cameras don't have threads so remember to cover the lens when not in use and try not to touch it.
Don't clean the lens too often - depending on how often you use your camera, every few weeks or few months is fine. To clean your lens, pick up a lens cleaning kit from your local photo store. Use the lens brush and air blower to remove any loose clinging particles. Place a drop of lens cleaning fluid onto some lens tissue (or a cloth) and wipe the lens clean with a circular motion. Use the blower to dry the lens, or let it dry naturally. Don't use any abrasive solution (such as soap) or wipe too hard on the lens as you can wipe away the special coatings.
Watch out you don't create a 'worn spot' by cleaning your lens the same way each time. Alternate the circular motion with up and down or sideways movements sometimes.
Ensure you protect the other parts of your camera as well. Particularly the Memory Card slot and Battery contacts. If you find they have any corrosion, you can remove it easily with a pencil eraser. Make sure you remove the excess eraser that can get left in the compartment with an air blower. Never ever insert anything into the memory card slot that isn't meant to be there, as you could break the small pins. To keep clean, it's best to leave a memory card in the slot, or at least keep the cover closed.
ISO EXPLAINED
You are probably familiar with ISO on film used in a film camera. It's the 'speed' of the film - higher ISO values mean you can take photos in lower light.
But what about in the digital world?
Surprisingly, there is an ISO setting on your Digital camera. And although there is no longer any film, the ISO setting still plays a vital role.
ISO indicates your digital camera's sensitivity to light. The higher the number, the less light is needed to take a photo that is bright enough (correctly exposed).
In bright light (like the middle of a sunny day), you'll normally use ISO 50 or ISO 100. These are the lowest settings and can be used because there is lots of light around.
However, in lower light, your camera needs some help. There are two ways of doing this:
Decrease Shutter Speed
With a slower shutter speed, the camera has more time to 'take in' the amount of light it needs. Unfortunately though, the slower the shutter speed, the more chance that your images will turn out blurry.
Increase ISO
Rather than decrease the shutter speed, you can increase the ISO. As I said above, this will increase the sensitivity of the camera which means you can get the same shot with less light entering the camera. Thus the shutter speed can be kept low enough to avoid blurry images.
As increasing the ISO will increase the shutter speed, a high ISO will also help when taking fast moving sports shots. You'll get clear, crisp shots with no blur.
However, I still recommend you use the lowest ISO possible. Why?
Problems of using a high ISO
Using a higher ISO means the camera has less light to work with. Unfortunately this also means that 'noise' is introduced into your camera. If you'd like to find out exactly what noise is and how to eliminate it, check out the free bonus on noise that comes with my Digital Photo Secrets book.
Your camera's highest one or two ISO values will produce a lot of noise in your image, so I suggest avoiding them unless the light is so low that you have no other choice.
Auto ISO
Fortunately most of the time you don't need to worry about selecting the correct ISO. Most cameras have an "Auto ISO" setting. With Auto ISO, the camera will look at the amount of light in the scene and change the ISO appropriately so that the shutter speed doesn't get too slow.
ISO Values
If you choose to use a manual ISO, what values should you use?
ISO 50-100. Suitable for bright light (like outdoors on a sunny day.
ISO 200. Great for overcast or cloudy days. However on budget cameras some noise will be seen in your image.
ISO 400 and above. Use for indoor or night shots (even if you use a flash). Also useful to freeze the action in sports shots. These values will produce the most noise.
Noise in digital cameras is a huge problem, and one we'll have to live with for a while. Find out what causes noise, and how to avoid it with a brand new free bonus that comes with my "Digital Photography Secrets" book. I even show you how to use a leading noise reduction program to fix noisy images you've already taken!
Taken from : Digital Photography Secrets
by Davide Peterson
(www.digital-photo-secrets.com)
