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Not everyone can take great photographs. However, there are a few simple tricks that you can use that will help you take higher quality photographs. Framing and capturing a great photograph is not a talent that everyone possesses. The great photographers can do this naturally. They see something worth capturing and they know instinctively how to frame it in a manner that is pleasing to the eye and draws the viewer's attention to a specific area of the image. Although very few people are skilled with the ability to take a great photograph, there are simple tricks that anyone can perform that elevate their picture-taking abilities by several notches. Do you want to improve your skills with a camera? If so, this article is for you. A simple and easy-to-implement trick for capturing flattering portrait-style images is to overexpose your photograph. By overexposing an image, you do accomplish a couple of things. The first benefit with overexposure is that you automatically clear up any blemishes on a person's skin, which is particularly helpful if your subjects are a little older. Have you ever looked at an actor's headshot? Overexposure plays a big role in why actor's headshots have a very universal look about them - they all have perfect skin! The second benefit you'll get by slightly overexposing your images is allowing for greater editing flexibility with your post production software. When it comes to digital editing, overexposure is far more useful than underexposure - you can do more with a picture that has slight overexposure than you can with a properly exposed or underexposed image. If you own a professional camera body, then you'll have no problem overexposing your images - you can do it by adjusting a few settings. However, if you own a point and shoot camera, more than likely you'll have to force an overexposure. Here's how to do it: frame your subject and press down on the shutter button until the camera takes a light reading and focuses, but don't press down far enough to where the camera actually takes a picture. Now you will need to turn and frame another subject that is the same distance away but has less light on it, and do the same thing. Two things will happen: the auto-focus shouldn't adjust very much if you selected a secondary target that is approximately the same distance away from your initial subject. The second thing that will happen is the camera will take a new light reading, and will adjust the settings accordingly. When you take the light reading for the second subject, don't release the shutter button! By keeping the shutter button halfway down, you'll maintain the focus and light reading. Finally, turn towards your initial subject and finish pressing down the shutter button. Your camera will take an overexposed image. While this system isn't an exact science, it will work. The more you practice it, the better you'll get at it, and your point-and-shoot images will look slightly better than they did before. Low angled lighting should be avoided at all cost when you are photographing people. Natural lighting is typically from a very high angle (such as the sun) and produces "expected" shadows across a person's face. Even unnatural lighting - such as from ceiling lights, lamps, or fluorescent lighting - produces similar types of shadows across a person's face. When you attempt to use low-angled lighting on a person's face, you end up with very unnatural shadows. Although the image is true and correct, the portrait will appear very unflattering. Low-angled lighting can be used effectively in a variety of situations, but if you're photographing people, it's best not to use it. Do you take a lot of pictures of your friends? One simple trick for keeping them happy is to simply frame them properly: when photographing people, remember to frame them from the shoulder to a few inches above their head. People like to see their faces! Close up images will always be appreciated more than images that focus more on the background. In short: let them see their mug close up! Today's modern cameras allow for a wide variety of lenses. You can buy adjustable lenses or primary lenses. If you're buying an adjustable lens, try to keep the range to 2x or 3x maximum, such as a 70mm to 200mm, or a 100mm to a 300mm. If you get a lens with too big of a range, such as 70mm to 400mm, you're going to end up with low quality images. The 50mm lens is said to be the closest lens for replicating what the human eye can see. With that in mind, a 300mm lens produces images six times closer to the subject than the human eye (six times 50 equals 300) while a 25mm lens will produce images that appear to be twice the distance away from the subject than what the human eye sees. The wider your lens, the more distortion is going to be present within your photograph. While this might not be a big deal if you are photographing abstract objects, it can produce very unflattering images when you are photographing people close up. To capture flattering images, you should always use the long end of your lens range. If you have a 100mm to 300mm lens, try to get as close to the 300mm range as you possibly can because it will produce more 'true to life' images and will not distort your subject's faces. Obviously, the longer the lens, the farther away you'll have to be from your subject. An added benefit will be a shallower depth of field in your images, and that will produce a higher level of bokeh on the background. The sooner you can start implementing those simple tricks, the sooner you'll start producing higher quality photographs. Good luck! Please visit these pages of our website: portrait photography long island, child photographer long island, and long island photographers.
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overexposing an image, photography tips, digital photography tips,
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