3 Valuable Tips to Take Better Pictures

In this video you are going to learn 3 valuable elements that will help you Take Better Pictures. There are of course hundreds of valuable tips, to learn about digital photography, but these three main areas are a good place to start. If you are fairly new to digital photography watch the video. If you have any comments or questions, let me know. I’d be happy to help.

The three elements are:

• Properly setting up your digital camera
• Composition
• Light

1. Setting up your digital camera

Digital cameras have TOO many menus, but the most important ones are File Size, File quality, ISO, White Balance and learning to read and interpret the histogram. These are the most important functions you need to understand to get you on the right path to taking better pictures with your digital camera.

2. Composition

This is the easiest non-technical way to make your pictures better. Good composition is the strongest way of seeing – Edward Weston coined that. If you have good composition in your photos, people will be drawn to your photos and want to look at them.

3. Light

Light is the paint of photographers. It has quality, quantity and direction. Often it’s the light that makes us notice that something has “picture taking” potential. Imagine sunsets, and how window light falls on your subject, and how backlit subjects look so dramatic.

If you can develop your sense of “seeing” light, you’ll improve your pictures.

A lot of people start taking pictures in really hard lighting situations and they get defeated early. They spend their time indoors. Start using outdoor natural light. Leave the flash off until you have trained your eye to see the natural light in the world around you. You might find that you don’t need a flash as often as you think.

Learn about these essential topics more in-depth by signing up for my free e-course and start learning from ImageMaven today:

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I’ve shot a ton of corporate events where the client specifically asked for candids. Now there are candids and there are candids.

This article covers what to do when shooting people at events and parties, and some advice for introverts who take party pictures.

A lot of people don’t like having their picture taken, especially at a business or fund raising function. They are deep in conversations, they are networking, and they don’t want to be disturbed. More than once I’ve gotten the evil glare of someone that meant, “Don’t even think about it!”

Groups of two or three people standing works well. In this shot a bounce flash was used, which also softens the harsh light from the flash and eliminates red eye.

My best technique is to circulate through the party quickly and early

I chat people up, and tell them I won’t take much of their time if they just give me a quick pose and a smile. I tell them I’m giving them a chance to look their best. If they protest, I tell them I’ve been hired for the event and that the photos will be used for company purposes only. People may want to know who you are and who you represent, as there may be media photographers covering the same event as you.

If you approach people in this friendly and business-like way they usually can’t say no. Most people do not want to seem impolite. In the case of a family reunion or wedding, people are usually a little more willing to be photographed. You can have a bit more fun with the shy ones at a non-business event too.

When you act as a voyeur and just grab shots of people talking or eating, you don't get the best results. In this case it would have been better to say "hey ladies, how about a little smile for the camera"

Don’t be a voyeur

Engaging people this way is better than just snatching photos with a long lens of people standing around talking. That’s what usually raises eyebrows and gets you stern looks. Act professionally, and you’ll get hired again.

Shots of large rooms of people really don't tell much. It's much more interesting to go up and meet people, have a quick chat and then take a shot or two.

Here are some more useful tips on shooting candids:

• Don’t take photos of people shoving food into their mouth or when their mouth is open. They’ll hate you for it.
• Groups of 2 or 3 work best and make a nice horizontal
• Crop tightly, head and shoulders are enough
• If people are standing they look better than if they’re sitting
• Step back a bit and use a longer focal length as opposed to being a foot away from people and using a wide angle lens. Distortion is unkind to people’s faces.
• Overall room shots are less successful unless your client is a party planner and they want room shots. Don’t bother.
• Using flash: I set my camera on f5.6 @ 1/60 second to catch some ambient light and keep the people in focus from front to back, but your settings may be different.
• Sometimes Program or Auto mode uses an ultra slow shutter speed, so you get too much ambient light and the people move or you get camera shake
• Also, using an ultra slow shutter speed makes white balance hard to set as the light is usually mixed
• Use the bounce flash to negate red-eye. Bounced light is also less harsh than direct flash.
• If you don’t have a bounce card built into your flash, make one out of white card or plastic and attach it to your flash with an elastic band.
• High ISO is okay, but 400 ISO is usually the highest I need to use.
• You’re capturing moments not fine artwork, and the chances of something being enlarged past the size of a standard letter page is pretty rare.
• Make a web gallery for your client so they can pass it on to the event guests. You can charge for this service too.
• Only show the best shots from the party on the web gallery or to your client.
• Delete the closed eyes shots and ones when people just look downright awful.

When you shoot groups, try to set people at different levels so they aren't all standing in a row.

Group shots

Sometimes you get asked to do large group shots at parties. Group shots are one of the hardest things to organize and shoot, especially indoors with limited lighting and when people are in party mode.

• If possible, try to get your group outside
• Look for an area where you can get people on different levels as opposed to standing all in a row
• Use a small f-stop for your group, so you’ll get more people in focus. Try f16 or smaller.
• Use fill flash outdoors to even-out the light and fill in the shadows

Here’s what I shoot with at parties and events:

• Canon 5D
• 24-70mm 2.8 lens with the lens hood attached
• Canon 580 EX Flash with the bounce card up
• Keep extra flash batteries on hand if it’s a big event

Even introverts can be party photographers

Getting good event candids is fun and easy if done right, and you can make some good money at it too. I’m an introvert, so it took me a bit of practice to just go up and talk to people. But one thing I’ve learned, is that people usually like to talk about cameras and that’s something I can speak easily about.

The camera also acts like a crutch or a friend, and when there is nothing else to do you can always adjust the dials and make yourself look like you are doing something highly technical and important.

On some cameras in Program mode, the shutter speed the camera chooses is too slow for hand holding and too slow for your subjects too. Even though a flash was used in this shot, the ambient light takes over the scene.

Practice at your next family event

I started taking event photos when I was a teenager at my family reunions. I had a huge extended family that lived on the other side of the country from me. I wanted to remember all my cousins and aunts and uncles, so I started shooting the reunions. It was great practice. Years later when my grandparents had their 60th wedding anniversary, they specifically asked me to take the party photos and all the group shots too.

Do you have any of your own tips for getting good candid photos? Go ahead and share them in the comments.

You’re back home, and now your iPad is full!

So you’ve had your iPad for a few months and perhaps gone on a few trips with it. If you’re like me and shoot exclusively raw photos and use the iPad as an archive, then chances are your iPad is full. If you’re not quite there yet, and are still preparing for a vacation with your iPad, read this post to learn about some good apps to take along with you.

You want your vacation photo archive transferred to your computer

I was recently faced with the task of getting my archived photos off the iPad and onto my Mac computer. To my delight, I found several free and easy ways to do this. Watch the video to see what I did using Aperture, iPhoto and Lightroom.

This works with lots of different software, not just the ones I showed in the video.

If you use any of the following software, you don’t need any fancy apps to do this for free:

• iPhoto
• Aperture 3.0
• Lightroom 3.0
• Photoshop CS5 – using Bridge
• Photoshop Elements 9 – using the Organizer

I’ve tested all these apps myself. This may also work in earlier versions of the software.

I didn't demonstrate importing from Photoshop in the video, but it's super easy too. Just do it through Bridge, the same way you import your photos from memory cards.

All you need to do is go to the Get Photos from Camera (or similar) menu of each of software and the iPad will show up like a memory card or a tethered camera.

Windows

To be fair, I haven’t tried this on a Windows machine. So, if you use Windows I have a feeling that it will be just as simple, at least if you use Lightroom, Photoshop and Elements. Please, let me know!

If you make a YouTube video response (to my video at the top of this post) about how to do this in Windows, I’ll feature it here too.

Do you like YouTube?

Help me out and subscribe to my YouTube channel right now, and “like” some of my videos. Thanks!

What is ISO?

ISO is the sensitivity of your sensor to light. The ISO number you use depends on the amount of light in the scene you are photographing. The more light you have to work with the lower you can set your ISO.

ISO numbers typically range from 100 to 6400 in most newer cameras. A few cameras go down to 80 ISO and some go as high as 25,000+ ISO!

One of the biggest benefits of digital photography is that you can change your ISO from one photo to the next. Back in the film days, you would have to choose your film according to the ISO, and then all your photos would have to be taken at that same ISO. That made taking photos in various lighting conditions tricky.

Guidelines to choosing the best ISO setting

On a bright and sunny day there is a lot of light so you can use a lower ISO setting. On a cloudy day there is less light, so you must increase your ISO. Indoor photos have even less light and if you don’t want to use a flash, you can bump up the ISO to compensate for the low light.

• 100 or 200 ISO for sunny and bright daylight
• 400 ISO for cloudy days, or indoors for window light portraits
• 800 ISO for indoors without a flash
• 1600+ ISO for really low light situations – that school play your kid is in

The trade off to shooting in really low light situations

You won’t miss a low light shot again! But, there is a trade off. As ISO numbers go up, so does the noise in your photos. Here is the proof:

Look at the difference between 80 and 1600 ISO in these photos.

Notice how much smoother the 80 ISO photo looks. The 1600 ISO photo shows lots of noise. You can really notice it in the darker areas.

Why not just use Automatic ISO?

If you don’t understand the manual settings and you’re in a hurry, sure go ahead and use Auto ISO. But I recommend you keep an eye on the noise factor in your photos.

Like the video says, do some tests with your camera. Figure out your noise tolerance. If Auto ISO is taking you to high levels of noise, it might be best if you learn how to use the manual settings.

Smaller sensors = More noise

You will notice ISO noise more in smaller sensor cameras, like point and shoots. My full frame dSLR camera hardly has any noise at super high ISO levels. But my small point and shoot gets unbearable noisy above 400 ISO. So for me, Auto ISO isn’t an option with my small camera.

Works for video too

A lot of you are shooting video now, and the same rules apply for video ISO settings. Whether you shoot video with your dSLR or a handy cam, you’ll need to keep your eye on the noise. The smaller the video camera, the more noise you’ll get at high ISO.

What’s your tolerance?

Let me know in the comments what your ISO tolerance is.

Take Better Pictures starting today! For more about ISO and other digital camera settings, sign up for my e-course today. You’ll learn how to set up your digital camera, and learn about basic lighting and composition too. Click here for all the details

Before and after. Watch the video to see how to do this in 3 minutes or less.

One of the most powerful things about shooting raw photographs is that you can juice up your landscapes really quickly. This video shows you how I went from the original photo on the left to the juicy landscape on the right using Adobe Camera Raw.

How to juice up this landscape photo in Camera Raw:

• The original photo was severely underexposed so I extended my histogram by moving the Exposure slider to the right.
• I corrected the White Balance using a pre-set to make it more neutral, but you can do custom white balance too.
• I increased the Blacks in the photo
• I added Contrast using the Tone Curve
• I added 75 points of Vibrance – This made the most impact on the juiciness of the photo.
• I used the graduated filter to darken the top half of the photo which made the clouds stand out better against the blue sky

This technique can be used exactly the same way in Adobe Lightroom. If you have Photoshop Elements you can do most of it except the tone curve and the graduated filter. Apple’s Aperture has similar controls for tweaking raw files.

Works best with:

In my experience, this technique works best with photos that have been taken on a sunny day. If there are clouds in the sky it also helps to make your landscape photos less boring.

What do you do to enhance your landscape photos? Let me know in the comments.

Learn the techniques pros use! In this course you will learn how to shoot camera raw files, and do basic raw image editing using Adobe Photoshop Elements 9, which is a reasonably priced and reasonably powerful image editing program.Start this course today . . .

As you probably know, the back of your camera preview is not reliable for checking the brightness of your photo. It is better to use the histogram. My last post showed you the histogram in action, and this tutorial will show you how to correct the brightness in your photos using exposure compensation.

Watch this video tutorial to learn how to use the exposure compensation feature on your digital camera.

Look for the plus minus button on your camera to adjust your exposure compensation

What to do if the histogram on your photo doesn’t look quite right:

• First locate the exposure compensation button on your camera
• You might have to crack open your camera user manual to find out where the +/- button is for your particular camera model
• Get into picture taking mode. You can’t correct a photo that’s already been taken. You’ll have to do that in image editing.
• Practice moving the dial from (+) plus  to (-) minus and back again, but remember to leave it at (0) zero when you’re done messing around
• Take a test shot using Program Mode, Aperture Priority Mode, or Shutter Priority Mode.
• Most cameras don’t let you use exposure compensation when you’re in Full Auto (green square of death) mode.
• Check the histogram
• You might have to press the display or info button when you’re in playback mode to see the histogram
• If it’s low, as in doesn’t go all the way to the right side, then it means your photo is under-exposed and you need to ADD light.
• If you need to add light, move the exposure compensation to +1 and take another picture of the same scene.
• Repeat until you get your histogram looking just right
• If it’s climbing the right side of the graph, then it means your photo is over-exposed, and you need to remove some light from your scene
• Remove light by moving the exposure compensation to -1, and take another picture of the scene
• Repeat until you get your histogram looking just right

Do this every time you take a photo

This seems like a long involved process, but you will learn to do it automatically once you are comfortable with all the buttons. Plus, you will save a whole lot of time in image editing. Once you know how to do this you will never worry about badly exposed photos again!

Do you use exposure compensation? Let me know in the comments.

Learn basic camera optics, plus creative uses of depth of field and shutter speed.This is a follow-up course to my free lessons. This 5-week photography course is taught online so you can study in the comfort of your own home at a time that’s right for you.Learn more about this course . . .

People often approach digital photography rather sloppily, thinking they can fix everything in editing, but that takes time.

Every time you take a photo it’s a good practice to check your histogram to make sure your photo is not under or over-exposed. Then you can correct it in camera instead of in photo editing. This will save many of your photos, especially if you shoot jpgs. This can save you tons of time too!

The left side of the histogram represents the dark areas of your photo, the right side the bright areas, and the midtones in the centre.

How to fix the histogram if it’s not looking good

If the histogram is showing that your photo is over or under-exposed, you can use your camera’s exposure compensation feature to correct it. You don’t even need to know much about f-stops and shutter speeds to do it.

All cameras have exposure compensation features built in. Just look for the +/- button. When you press it, a scale with a range of -2 to +2 comes up. You can add or remove light using this scale. Each full increment is one Ev.

If your histogram does not go all the way across to the right of the graph, then you have an under-exposed photo. In that case you will need to add some light, or some exposure to it. You can do this by changing your f-stops and/or shutter speed manually, or you can use the exposure compensation feature and add light using the + (plus) numbers.

If your histogram shows over-exposure, or too much light and the graph is climbing the wall on the right side, then you need to remove some light from the scene. In general if only one channel is over-exposed, you usually have enough detail left to work with the file. For example: When you shoot a sunset, the red channel is typically overexposed, but the green and blue are fine.

To remove light from the over-exposed photo you can adjust your f-stops or shutter speed manually, or you can use the exposure compensation feature and remove light using the – (minus) numbers on the scale.

Do you check your histogram after every shot?

If you are shooting several photos in a row in the same lighting conditions, then you just have to check at the start of the sequence and maybe do a spot check once in awhile. I’m so used to checking the histogram all the time, that it has become an automatic thing for me. You might notice other photographers doing it too.

If you have any questions or thoughts on this topic, please let me know in the comments.

Learn basic camera optics, plus creative uses of depth of field and shutter speed.This is a  follow-up course to my free lessons. This 5-week photography course is taught online so you can study in the comfort of your own home at a time that’s right for you.Learn more about this course . . .

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1. Determine your fees
2. Determine your expenses

I’ve written about pricing your photography  and going pro in the past, but I want to share two more resources with you to help you determine what you need to charge in order to make a decent living, have enough money to replenish your photography equipment, and do other things like:

• take holidays
• send your kids to college,
• pay rent/buy a house
• get a car
• and save for retirement

Photography service fees

Karyn Greenstreet of Passion for Business used to be a professional photographer, and now helps entrepreneurs “create the business they want and deserve.” She’s got a ton of resources for all types of businesses, not just photography. I’ve been reading Karyn’s blog for awhile now and she’s always got great stuff.

Karyn writes about service fees in this article. I really like how she lays out the topic of fee options. As a photographer you need to work out how you will charge for your services and it’s important to do this before you take on too many photo assignments.

Will you charge:

• by the hour?
• the session?
• the project?

Will you charge usage or photo licensing fees? For some type of work, like advertising and corporate work, this is the norm. For weddings and family portraits, not usually.

I’m fully aware of how excited you get when someone wants to pay you for photos.

It’s a dream come true. When you first starting taking pictures, getting hired sometimes happens by accident, so you are totally unprepared. You start off by practically giving your stuff away. The last thing on your mind is, “Will this photo gig make me enough profit to send my kids to college?”

Maybe you’ve done a few jobs like that. Every photographer has. The mistake of course, is continuing along that path without ever really sitting down and crunching the numbers. Many photographers I know, have never really done that. And it’s not as simple as seeing what other photographers in your market change.

Determine your true expenses

Many people have the impression that digital photography is cheap to produce, especially people that already own digital cameras. I faced this challenge many times myself when dealing with corporate clients.

Maybe you have that same impression yourself. I mean, let’s fact it, once you have your camera, you just start taking pictures and ka-ching $$, money starts flowing into your bank account. Right? Wrong!

Your work doesn’t end when you press the shutter

But you probably already know that. Don’t forget about what happens after you click the shutter. Typically, you’re going to spend several hours per shoot in front of a computer doing tasks like:

• organizing
• keywording
• editing
• retouching
• sizing
• saving
• sending finished files to the photo lab
• sending finished files to the cloud
• creating a web gallery with your files

Screen shot of the Cost of Doing Business Calculator

Cost of doing business

So you’ve got some ideas of fees you want to charge. But will those fees be enough to keep your business sustainable over the long term?

Maybe it’s time you determined your actual operating expenses based on how much money you want to make. A great resource for this is the cost of doing business calculator which was put out by the NPPA a few years ago. Plunk some numbers into the form and see what you come up with. Juggle things around a bit too. Sometimes even just looking at the form and seeing all those categories is enough to make wanna-be-pro photographers head for the hills.

Did I scare you?

All too often we go into business, especially a creative business without understanding what we have to charge and how much it costs to do client work. Sometime we even supplement our photography business by having a full time job. These two resources should get you started on the right track to at least start thinking about it! I hope I haven’t scared you away.

What sort of challenges do you face when it comes to photography pricing?

Let me know in the comments.

In art, design and photography it is common practice to use the rule of thirds in our compositions. The rule of thirds is derived from the Golden Ratio which has historical roots in painting and graphic arts and also exists in many natural forms. Basically the rule of third says: Avoid placing your subject in the middle of the frame. Place it on the side, top, or bottom third instead. As a result of this, symmetrical compositions are often avoided and are thought of as unsophisticated and simple.

From the landscapes to the architecture, symmetry is everywhere in the Netherlands including this house and the outbuildings.

Symmetry is unavoidable in the Netherlands

I used to avoid symmetrical compositions myself, until my recent trip to the Netherlands. There I discovered that not only is symmetry common, it’s rather expected.

I first became aware of the influence of symmetry in the architecture of Amsterdam while visiting Museum Geelvinck, a former canal house. On the house tour, the guide told us that many of the rooms were constructed and decorated symmetrically. They even went so far as to add fake doors in walls so that the rooms would appear balanced. The ceilings were symmetrical and even the gardens were created symmetrically. It was beautiful and restful. Here are some example photos.

Gardens are built symmetrically at the Geelvinck

The ceilings of 17th Century Geelvinck canal house are designed symmetrically

Rooms in the Geelvinck have fake doors so they remain balanced. Look on both sides of the painting that's hanging on the wall for evidence.

Even in the provinces, symmetry is everywhere. This house is not symmetrical, but all its parts are, including the window coverings.

Of course once you start thinking about something you can’t stop thinking about it and your mind becomes totally tuned into it. That was the case with me on this trip.

When I got home I became acutely aware of the lack of symmetry in my surroundings and in my city. I notice how we build contorted oddly shaped buildings now instead and we rarely see modern architecture that is symmetrical. In the case of Amsterdam though, all of the 400+ year old canal houses are built on poles. If they were not so symmetrical, they’d probably tip, and many of them do!

The canal houses in Amsterdam are symmetrical so that they won't lean too much

There's nothing wrong with taking a symmetrical composition

Much of the symmetry of the original buildings still exists today

I’ve never been much of a designer myself, but I have always been drawn to symmetrical things. Maybe that’s my Dutch heritage and upbringing. Over the years I’ve trained myself to create rule of thirds based compositions, but I shall think twice before avoiding symmetry in the future.

What do you think?

Is symmetry something you use in your photographic compositions?

Come and join me for a photo walk in Inglewood this weekend!

Fresh off a 3-week holiday in the Netherlands I’m still in the mood to take pictures. I spent most of June on my own photo walks around Amsterdam and smaller towns in the north part of Holland, and I’m just not ready to get back to serious work yet. I know we don’t need many reasons to get out and take photos, but here are some.

Good weather

Last night after seeing the weather report for the weekend I thought, “hey let’s have a spontaneous Photo Walk this weekend.”

Holiday

I know it’s a holiday weekend in Canada, so many of you may not be around. That’s okay. If we only have a few people participating, I’m okay with that too!

Group effort

Sometimes it’s good to just get out and take photos for fun, but sometimes it’s hard to get motivated to do that. Being on a photo walk is a great way to get motivated. If you’re a bit on the introverted side (welcome to my world) don’t be shy. Photography attracts a lot of introverts. So while you may be on a photo walk you’ll be able to veer off the chosen path and discover the sights on your own too. You won’t feel silly walking around with a camera because there will be other people around you doing the same thing.

Share and learn

People of all levels can join in photo walks, even if you just have a basic camera. I will give you some basic guidance if you’re stuck on something, but so can other people in the walk. Don’t be afraid to ask people for help and give tips to other people too!

This is an open minded and friendly event. If you see someone taking some interesting shots, ask to see them on the back of their camera. Offer people to see yours too!

I want to keep things simple, so I suggest you do too. Take a minimum amount of gear along. These are personal photos. Concentrate on shooting things like line, shape, form, texture, details and look for interesting patterns of light and shadow. Work on your timing.

100 year-old piece of sidewalk in historic Inglewood

Great location – Inglewood

This photo walk will be in Inglewood. Why Inglewood? It’s eclectic and there is a lot of variety in a small area.

• Funky inner city neighbourhood
• Friendly people live there
• Old sandstone buildings
• Lots of small interesting shops
• Lots of restaurants
• Free parking on the side streets
• Close to Crossroads Farmer’s Market – head over there after the walk

Time frame: 10am to Noon

The walk will start at 10am on Saturday July 2, 2011. It will last until noon. Feel free to stay longer or stay in the neighborhood for lunch or a snack with other people that you meet on the walk.

I haven’t made any arrangements with any restaurants in the area, so you’re on your own after noon.

You in?

Sign up using the form below if you are interested in participating in this photo walk. You will receive details about the meet-up location after you sign in.

There will be no charge for this event.

P.S.

The walk was a huge success! Have a look at some of our photos in this Flickr group gallery.

Here's the gang that went on the Photo Walk