Useful Photographic Tips

Taking a good photograph, will contribute greatly to your pleasurable memories of "the moment", and enhance your minds-eye view with a tangible visual record of your special moments. To make your photography much more successful and enjoyable, here are a few tips you can benefit by remembering. They're neither difficult nor time consuming, so with just a couple of minutes of instruction to learn all you need to know, why not use these basic principles. They are in no particular order of importance.

More tips will be added regularly to this site, so check back with us often.

A Great Helper for Taking Properly Exposed Photos

Kodak has a great publication called The Kodak Professional Photoguide. I have a copy of it which was published in 1975. Among the great information this book has, is a suggested starting point for arriving at the correct exposure for a number of specific photo taking opportunities. They range from taking scenic shots at dusk, to taking shots at concerts and other stage presentations, taking shots of fireworks, moonlit snowscapes & night shots of Niagara Falls to name only a few - just about all of those types of situations where everyone can benefit from a helping hand,,, even this retired pro!

All you do is choose the speed rating of your film from the table and it will give you the suggested f-stop and shutter speed.

Have a look in a "good" photo store in your area to get your own copy, or check out most libraries to have a look!

Best Type of Day for Taking Photos

Most people think that the best type of day for photography is a nice bright sun. That depends on what you're taking a photo of. If it's scenery and the sun is positioned sort of behind you (to the left or right a bit but behind you), your shots will be lit fine. But if your subjects are people, a bright sunny day is definately THE WORST time for people photography. How many times have we all seen shots of people who have dark faces with no distinguishable features, or those black eye sockets. That's caused by the dark shadows that the sun creates.

The best time for taking photos of people, are these days when the sky is obscurring the sun with light clouds so that no direct sunlight is reaching the Earth. You'll get the warmest and best, most pleasing people shots on days like this because the cloud cover acts like a great big photograher's umbrella and diffuses the light perfectly for doing portrait photography.

The position of the overcast sun is preferrably behind you and a bit to the left or right. If you have a light meter in your camera, take your meter reading and you're ready to take your shot. If you have no light meter, open up your lens by one or two f-stops from what the film's instructions say for the correct exposure for a bright sunny day and,,,,, fire away,,, it's that simple.

Photo Tip: Making the Correct Exposure

Taking a good photograph requires choosing 2 appropriate settings on your camera - the shutter speed and the f-stop. Here's a tip that's worth it's weight in gold if you are not using the automatic exposure feature on your camera, or if it doesn't have one. Most shots you'll take will be taken on a sunny day. On a bright sunny day, use 1/ISO rating (or the closest shutter speed on your camera). For example, if you're using ISO 200, choose 1/250th, and if you're using ISO 100, choose 1/125th, and if you're using 400 ISO, choose 1/500th.

When so doing, use an f-stop of f-11, and you'll get a properly exposed photograph every time! If it's a bit cloudy, use f-5.6 and if it's REALLY bright, use f-16 or f-22.

Photo Tip: The Rule of Thirds

As you are taking the photograph, and as you're getting your subject into the view finder just so, or as you're deciding whether to get that tree into your shot, keep in mind this basic rule of composition.

Regardless of the type of camera you've got - Instamatic or Nikon 35mm sytem, in your mind, divide your view finder into thirds, both horizontally and vertically. Imagine approximately where those lines would intersect,,, got it?,,, OK, we're going to come back to that so don't forget it. Now as you size up your view finder, decide what it is your actually taking a photo of, in other words, what's the most main subject of your photograph,,, OK, now position the main subject at one of those points of intersecting lines we spoke of. Try the others too. Which spot looks best to you? When you've decided, fire away!

I'll bet your resulting photograph will be more pleasing than those static, "always in the middle" shots we've all seen so many of. Try it, you'll like it!

Photo Tip: Get in Close!!!

While we're on the topic of composing your shot, here's probably the most important tip I can offer to you. When you're taking a shot of a person, why not do what the pros do..... GET IN CLOSE!!!!! We've all seen publicity shots of celebrities, you know where they are nice and large - or cropped to just the person's head and shoulders.

If you include the person's legs plus a lot of other unnecessary stuff around them into your photograph, you may not get the results you're after. It's been said that "the eyes are the window to the soul", and I believe that in a photograph, that can be very true.

So if you're disappointed in some of your people shots, for a much more intimate result, move in on your subject considerably. and crop out everything from your viewfinder which is not needed in your photograph. You'll be much happier with the results!

Photo Tip: Making Natural Settings Better

You've probably seen those great looking photos of a beautiful scene that's been taken from under a branch with the branch and a few leaves in the corner of the shot, tastefully out of focus. Well if you see a shot which would look great taken like that but there's no tree around, why not put your own tree there. Folks who see your shot will not suspect anything!

Remove a small branch of perhaps 2 feet long with a few leaves at one end, from a place where there are some trees. Return to your desired location, and as you're framing up the shot, move the end of the branch with the leaves into the frame just a bit, and take your shot. The resulting photograph will appear to have been taken from under a tree, looking out onto the beautiful scene in your shot.

Photo Tip: Lens Shades ARE important! Use One

When you get your prints back from processing, do you ever look at them and think, "Why do they look so 'milky' or why is the colour so BLAND???" The probable cause is simple to understand and fix, and eliminating this problem costs nothing!

The milky or unsaturated prints are probably caused by light from the sun or your flash being inadvertantly allowed to enter our lens through the front element. The solution is as simple as shading the lens from the light source. Sometimes lens hoods don't block all direct light that can enter the lens. All you have to do is to hold up a reasonably small (12" x12") piece of cardboard or heavy paper to cast a shadow on the lens, and the problem is solved and your prints will have vibrant colour once again. I've even used just my hand or my body in a pinch! You just watch the shadow and be sure it's falling on the lens.

It goes without saying that the hand held shade must be out of the photo. You might think that fact is obvious, but I've seen too many shots ruined by "scrims" as they're called. So it's imperative to check to see that your lens shading device or scrim is not going to be captured on film! Learn the covering power of your lenses, that is where the edges of the photo will be.

This will definately help to give your photographs a vibrance they may have been missing.

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