Taking Better Photos Day 9 - Editing Your Photos

Today is the last post of this series.  Whew...I'm tired :) 
So, you're capturing all these moments...now what?  If you're anything like me, your photos just get dumped into your computer and maybe make it to Facebook.  I am notoriously guilty for taking photo after photo and never developing them.  Well, I need to fix this and get some updated photos on my walls.  In order to do that, I want them to look as good as possible.  In comes editing.

First things first.  The best way to get great photos is to do your best to take a good photo straight out of camera (sooc).  I'm of the mindset that editing my photos is more of a digital darkroom than doing crazy in Photoshop.  Getting a good shot sooc saves time in the editing or post processing stage.  So, first I'm going to explain what I do to edit a photo and then I'll tell you about some other options.

I do have the full version of Photoshop, but don't use it for my photos.  I use a Photoshop program called Lightroom, and I absolutely lurve it!  If your going to invest in a program, this is my favorite.  The nice thing about Lightroom is that if you have a bunch of photos that you plan on editing with the same settings, you select them all and sync them.  That way you're not having to edit each and every photo.

Here's an example of what Lightroom looks like.  The before photo is my straight out of camera (sooc) photo.  You can manually make all kinds of changes if you want complete control, or you can use what are called presets.  In this example, the photo seemed a little dull.  All I did was use the direct positive preset and then clicked on auto tone.  That's it.  That's all I did for post process on this photo and look at the difference. 

If you choose Photoshop, that program has what are called actions, which are their version of presets.  Google's Picasa has all kinds of editing options.  Flickr, Shutterfly, Snapfish...they all have options.  You don't have to invest money into a program.  I know of many people that do their edits right in Picasa for web uploads. 

Today's moral is that post processing can enhance the amazing photo that you've already taken if you don't go overboard.  Keep it simple and enjoy what YOU captured.

Thanks for following along with this series.  I hope it was helpful!

Taking Better Photos Day 8 - Metering & Bringing it all Together

I hope everybody had a FANTASTIC weekend!  It was busy, but great for us.  I had a newborn shoot and engagement shoot over the weekend that I'll post about soon.  Today, we're going to talk more about our cameras.  So, I've told you about Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO, but how the heck do you make it all work together to have complete control over your camera?  It's surprisingly easy once you understand how each of those 3 things work, and our cameras help.  Here's the breakdown:

1.  Switch your camera into manual mode
2.  Choose your ISO based on how bright or dim your location is.
3.  Choose your Aperture.  Do you want a really blurry background?  Go for a low number.  Do you want everything in focus?  Go for a high number.
4.  Here comes the "work".  Your camera has something called an exposure meter.  It looks something like this:

image courtesy of www.photography.about.com

This meter is what's going to tell you what shutter speed to use based on the ISO and aperture that you chose.  If your LCD is displaying your settings, your light meter will show there.  On my camera, I look through my viewfinder and hold my shutter release button down 1/2 way.  This will bring up my exposure meter.  Your meter will show if your picture is going to be too dark (underexposed), or too light (overexposed) by either being on the - side or the + side.  If your meter is on the - side, dial your shutter speed down to a slower speed until your meter is 0.  If your meter is on the + side, dial your shutter speed up until your meter is 0.

That's it.  It might seem confusing at first, but once you find your light meter and start adjusting your shutter speed, you'll get it before you know it.  Guess what?  You now know the basics of shooting in manual. 

Tomorrow is all about Photoshop and post processing programs to help enhance your photos.

Taking Better Photos Day 7 - ISO

As a child, I can remember in detail my little camera that used 110 film.  I remember upgrading to a 35mm camera and buying film for it.  I remember having to worry about film speed.  If we were going to the races I needed at least 800.  Otherwise, I stuck with 200.  Okay, maybe I wanted to use 400 sometimes.  Those were my go to speeds as a kid. 

What does this have to do with ISO?  Well, the speed of film is the measure of the film's sensitivity to light and ISO is the digital version of film speed.  ISO tells your camera HOW sensitive it needs to be to light.  ISO ranges from 100 to the thousands depending on your camera. 

My best tip for you is to keep your ISO as low as possible.  ISO is a great tool, but it has a drawback.  The higher an ISO you use, the more grainy your photo.  Grain in a photo is known as "noise" in photography terms.  If your outside on a sunny day, keep your ISO at 100.  When your inside a dim room, your ISO will need to be higher.

Tomorrow I'm going to go over pulling together the triangle...shutter speed, aperture and ISO.  You'll be shooting in manual and having complete control over your camera in no time.

Taking Better Photos Day 6 - Aperture

How was every body's 4th of July?  I hope y'all got some great fireworks pictures.  We celebrated in Avon Lake and watched a good fireworks show.  Sunset was beautiful.

Oh how I miss the water.  Anyway...I hope you took out your cameras and caught lots of memories over the weekend.  Alexander got to go on a slip and slide, which he completely loved. 

How did it work out to slow your shutter speed for fireworks shots?  It takes some getting used to.  I didn't get a single shot last year that I liked and we were so close to the action this year that I only had a few keepers this year.

Today I'm going to talk about the second part of the triangle, which is aperture.  We know that shutter is how slow or fast your camera is taking a picture, and that it also means a brighter photo with a slow speed and a dimmer photo with a fast speed.  Well, aperture does a couple of things too.

• Like shutter speed, aperture controls how much light is getting into your camera as well.  Think of aperture like the pupil in your eye.  When you're out in the bright sun, your pupil constricts, or gets small, because your eye doesn't need as much light to see.  When you're inside a dim room, your pupil dilates, or gets larger, in order to let more light in so you can see better.  Your camera aperture is how open your lens is or how closed it is.  Oh how I tried to find a good graphic to explain this.  Oh well.  Don't mind the bad photos from my iPhone.  They get the point across.

When your aperture is wide open, you're letting more light in.

When your aperture is "closed", you're letting less light in.

• The other aspect of aperture has to do with how blurry your background is.  This is otherwise known as Depth of Field (DoF) in photography language, but really it's all about blur.

To get a blurry background, you need your lens wide open.

This picture has a small aperture and you can see everything in the background.  Blurry backgrounds really change your photos because it allows the focus to be on your subject.  In this photo, I'm much more distracted by the people swimming in the background, but in the previous photo you can't even see them.

So how do you change your aperture?

Point and Shoot users:  Portrait mode is your aperture friend.  Portrait mode tells your camera to use an aperture that will create slightly more blur than auto mode.

SLR users:  Aperture is referred to as f-stops on your camera.  Look at the numbers on your lens.  Do you see numbers maybe ranging from f/4.5-5.6, going all the way up to 22?  These are your aperture numbers.  the lower numbers are the widest your aperture will open.  The 22 is the pin like aperture letting in less light and blur.  Switch your camera to Aperture Priority mode.  This mode allows you to choose your aperture and your camera chooses everything else for you.  Do you want blurry backgrounds?  Stick with lower f-stop number (1.8, 4.5, 5.6)...turn the dial as low as your camera will allow.  Do you want everything in focus?  Choose f/22...turn the dial as high as your camera will allow.

Tomorrow is all about ISO.  Whew...this post was long. 

Taking Better Photos Day 5 - Shutter Speed

Does anybody else ever feel like they’re not getting the picture fast enough?  I know with Alexander, I used to feel that I was massively missing out because he’d do something, I’d try to take a picture, and he’d already be gone by the time the camera actually took the picture.  Point and shoots are kind of notorious for this. 
 

Some of this has to do with auto-focus, and some of it with shutter speed.  Something that helps me immensely is to hold the shutter release button (the button you push to take your picture) half way down.  Doing this will allow you camera to focus on your subject, that way you’re ready when you want to snap your picture.  The only hitch with this plan is that you need to somewhat anticipate the moment.  Luckily, we usually know when we want to take a picture since we have our camera’s in our hands J

So what is this elusive shutter speed?  In a nutshell, it’s how slow or fast your camera is taking a picture.  Think of shutter speed like blinking your eye.  When your eye is open, your shutter is open.  The speed of your shutter opening and closing affects a couple of things.

1. You know how you see photos of waterfalls where the water looks like cotton candy?  That’s achieved by using a slow shutter speed, or by keeping the shutter open for a longer period of time.  Or, you see photos of race cars going over 100mph frozen in action?  That’s achieved by using a fast shutter speed, or by having the shutter open and close quickly. 

For example, this picture was taken with a slow shutter speed of 4/100 of a second.  If I could have done it freehand, I would have done 1 second instead, but using a slow shutter speed also has a hitch.  The slower the speed, the more blur you get.  In a picture of a waterfall, you want blur, in a family group shot…not so much.

This picture was taken with a shutter speed of 1/160 of a second.  See the lack of cotton candy effect?  That’s because a faster shutter speed freezes action better. 

2. The other aspect of shutter speed has to do with light.  The slower your shutter speed, or the longer you keep your shutter open, the more light you’re going to get in your photo.  The faster your shutter speed, the less light.  Say you’re taking shots at night or in a dim room, you’re going to want a slower shutter speed.  Say you’re out in the bright sun, you can use a fast shutter speed.  Again, keep in mind that a slower shutter speed allows more room for blur in your photos. 

Get excited because knowing this information means you’re moving out of auto mode on your camera!  Maybe it's only exciting to me.

Point and shoot users:  Want to get action shots or shots that freeze action?  Switch into sports mode.  Some cameras even have a fireworks mode, which will slow everything down.  If not, try night mode but realize that because of the slower shutter speed, you might get blur if you don’t set your camera on something like a tripod.  Some point and shoot cameras have a manual mode.

SLR users:  Now’s the time to play with shutter priority mode.  This is a great starting point because everything except the shutter speed is still automatic.  Play with shutter speed.

Now for fireworks.  Logically speaking, I would think that because fireworks can be such a quick blast you would need a fast shutter speed, but the opposite is true.  A really slow shutter speed will help you get those picturesque fireworks photos.  Try it this weekend during all those Independence Day festivities.  I’ll be back on Tuesday to talk about the second aspect of that triangle, aperture. 

Taking Better Photos Day 4 - Camera Settings

You know what really annoys me?  When photographers talk about the triangle but fail to explain what the heck it is.  Don’t worry, I’ll explain what that means soon.  It took me a LONG time to learn how to shoot in manual mode.  You see, our camera’s have all these shooting modes on them.  Point and shoots have a menu where you can choose portrait mode, landscape mode, candlelight mode, action mode, etc.  SLR’s have Program Priority, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Manual Mode, and a few like the point and shoots.  Ack!  Even better, I don’t speak user manual and the language puts me to sleep.  So, I learned through a lot of research and a lot of trial and error about what all of these mean. 

Today, I’m just going to give a quick explanation of “the triangle”.  It consists of 3 things (obviously, since a triangle has 3 sides).

1. Shutter Speed
2. Aperture
3. ISO

Basically, these 3 things are what make your picture turn out with the correct lighting.  Not too dark (underexposed), not too light (overexposed).  Over the next three days I’m going to go over them individually, but for today, I don’t want to overwhelm anybody. 

I do have another tip regarding composition today.  Framing is another technique that photographers like to use.  Is there anything around you that could provide a natural frame for your subject?  Alexander and I went on a picnic yesterday in Olmsted Falls (I was a lucky and got to take the day off work).  There’s a great covered bridge that made a perfect backdrop frame.  Framing gives interest to your photos and gives them context.

Taking Better Photos Day 3 - Angles

My next secret is called camera tilt.  It’s amazing the creative difference it can make in a photo if you literally just tilt your camera to the side a little (not a lot) when taking your picture.

Is anybody noticing a theme in my pictures?  Get down to your subject’s level.  Say you’re taking a picture of a baby.  Don’t just stand and take pictures looking down on them.  Get on the floor.  It’s amazing the difference this will make.

Short and sweet for today.  Tomorrow we’re going to dive into the technical stuff.  Don’t worry…I promise I won’t put you to sleep J

Taking Better Photos Day 2 - Composition

Today’s lesson is seriously one of the fastest and easiest ways to completely change your photos.  It’s called composition.  Composition is just the way in which something is arranged in your picture.  From a photography standpoint, what you see on your LCD screen or through your camera is called a frame.  How you arrange what you see in your frame is your composition.

I am a complete design junkie.  Interior design and decorating are something I love.  In decorating, there is a secret to making things more appealing to the eye…groups of 3 (or odd numbers in general).  Well, in photography, there is something called the thirds principle.  Think of the below picture as our camera frame.  If you’re looking through your viewfinder (you know, the thing you put your eye up to in order to see into the camera) or your LCD screen, where is your subject placed?  If you’re taking a picture of a person, is the person’s face directly in the middle?  Is it off to the side a little?

The secret in composition is to not completely center your subject.  Put their face in the top third and look at the difference.  Place their nose on one of the intersecting lines. 

Here's another great tip. Get in close! Too much background takes the focus away from your subject. It can be distracting and most of the time isn't needed to tell a story with your photo. Of course, that depends on where you are. If you're taking pictures with a picturesque background, okay, I get it. If your taking pictures and there's a mess of laundry in the background or toys all the over the place, not so much.

Look at the difference between the pictures below.  Out of the next two pictures, which is more appealing to your eye?

Play with composition.  Don’t be afraid place your subject somewhere else in the frame.  It’s digital and you’re not wasting film; so if you decide you don’t like it, it’s no big deal. 

Taking Better Photos - Day 1

Now that summer has officially arrived and 4^th of July celebrations are quickly approaching, there couldn’t be a better time to take out our cameras and capture some good times.   

As a photographer, I am often asked by friends about “how to take good pictures”.  This question kind of breaks my heart.  Photography is something I have worked hard at understanding and I know what it’s like to feel that the pictures I’m taking just aren’t up to par.  Through my journey of learning photography I have learned something much more important.  You could know everything there is to know about your camera, but if the picture doesn’t speak to you, you’re still not going to feel that your pictures are good enough.  I still don’t know everything and I don’t think I ever will.  I’m okay with that because it allows me room to grow.  Sure, the technical aspect helps, but photography is about emotion.  It’s much more important that the picture invoke emotion in you than it is to capture a perfect technically accurate photo. 

However, since I’ve been there, I totally relate and it’s been on my heart to educate a little bit.  I remember as a new mom what it was like to feel as if I wasn’t going to do a good enough job at capturing Alexander.  That’s what my driving force was in learning photography.  I wanted and still want to be able to have Alexander look back on family photos and feel like he was going back in time to that moment.  So, I’m going to spend some time blogging about camera know how.

From a camera standpoint, the price of DSLR’s these day’s makes buying an awesome camera easily attainable to the non professional.  In my eyes, that’s great news.  The bad news is that most people only know auto mode, as that’s what our point and shoots gave us.  Point and shoots also offer some nice hidden gems.  We’ve bought these wonderful cameras, but don’t know what power they possess.  This must be fixed. 

First up, for this lesson I want everybody to forget about technical know how.  Just enjoy taking pictures.  Enjoy watching the story unfold before your eyes.  Enjoy being in the moment and capturing it.  Be it your kids, your pets, the weather, nature, Independence Day weekend with your friends and family…whatever it is, just capture it.  Next week we’ll get into the know how.  For now, just see those sweet moments and take your picture. 

Scott and I went out to Geneva-on-the-Lake this weekend and celebrated our anniversary at the Lake Erie Wine Festival.  Our 5th anniversary celebration is definitely one I'll remember and I'm glad we got a picture.  What do you want to remember?