Digital Photography Tips - How To Photograph People And Places

Nothing defines a place as much as the people who live there work there or visit. It is fascinating to observe them and their culture. They can also provide a rich source of photographic potential too.

Not everybody is comfortable taking candid shots when visiting a particular city or location.

It takes a certain amount of confidence, quick reactions and a real eye for a picture, but with a little courage and practice, candid photography can add a human touch to your pictures of places that you visit.

A few simple rules

Here are a few simple rules when taking candid shots of people that you don't know, often without their permission. As taking their picture has the potential to be fraught with difficulties, follow these simple rules to ensure that you won't offend or upset the people that you photograph and you won't have any problems:

Have respect for the people you are photographing and for any cultural differences that there may be when visiting far flung destinations. If you have any doubt, please do some research before you leave. It is very important that you don't insult or offend the people whose country you are visiting.

A lot of people are very camera shy so if somebody spots you and indicates that they are not happy being photographed, please respect their feelings. Be sure to let them know that you understand. You won't usually be breaking any laws by photographing people in public places but that does not give you the right to upset anyone.

If you have any doubt about whether or not they would be offended about having their photograph taken (such as if they are working on a market stall etc), ask! Most people in general will be more than happy to be photographed as long as you talk to them first. This takes some practice at first, especially if you are shy or don't speak their language, but it is just good manners to do so.

Taking photographs of children is especially sensitive. Please be very careful to get their parent's permission, and explain what you are doing, if you are taking candid shots of children. Depending on where you are, anxiety about your motives might be so strong that it simple might be best to avoid photographing children.

Don't be surprised if street performers, artisans, street sellers or beggars ask for payment for a picture. Never just take a snap and run.

When taking a photograph, try and take a picture of them doing something, such as laughing, talking or working. This will produce more interesting and more 'human' images.

Finally, never hesitate. If a shot doesn't work, simply delete it. Don't waste a few vital seconds deciding whether or not to take the picture. If you do the moment will be gone forever. Also, don't worry about technical excellence and waste time trying to get your camera settings right. A little blurring or noise can add atmosphere to candid shots. Just concentrate on composing and taking the photograph.

As with any kind of photography, the more you do it, the better you will become at spotting and capturing those fleeting moments in time that say something meaningful and interesting about your subject.

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Digital Photography Tip - How To Photograph Christmas Lights

Christmas is coming and so is the urge for us who love digital photography to get out there in the burbs and photograph the beautiful Christmas lights. It's a beautiful time of year and when you are as passionate about digital photography as I am, then this is the time you whip that digital camera out.

Taking photos of Christmas lights with your digital camera can be a very disappointing experience for digital photography enthusiasts. Pictures of Christmas lights in digital photography are aimed at being crystal clear with beautifully bold colours and hopefully we can capture the delicate glow that radiates from the lights themselves.

But...Christmas lights don't always provide the ideal digital photography experience does it? J In fact, in digital photography, Christmas lights can turnout to be smudged dots of colour, like water over ink and way too dark. The first time I took a digital photography image of Christmas lights the flash went off accidentally causing a flattening out of my images not to mention the lovely colours disappearing and it ended up just being a digital photo of the neighbour's front lawn. Not to mention how it set the dog off barking!

So just what is the digital photography secret to getting crystal clear shots of our suburban Christmas lights?

Okay now I'm going to share a secret with you. The best way to get suburb results of sharp, colourful Christmas lights is to choose the house you are going to photograph. Depending on where you live and how fast you can run, you may need to tee it up with your neighboughs first and offer them the photo. The same rules apply with your Christmas tree.

Take your tripod with you. Take your digital camera off "auto" and take it off "auto flash".

Now try a method called bracketing. Set the aperture at a wide f stop, such as 2.8 or 3.5 for example. Then proceed to try some different settings. Set the shutter to 1/30 or higher. I'd recommend, if it's really dark in the street something around the one second, two seconds or three seconds shutter speed.

There is a groovy little trick you can also do for helping you learning faster, about what works in digital photography and what doesn't. That's recording and documenting your digital photography experience. I usually take a note pad with me and write down the number photo and the f stop and shutter speed so when I look at the photos I know which digital photo has worked and what has not.

But in the dark it's very hard to write down anything so you can do what I sued to do, and that is record on Mp3 what your settings you had on what photo. For example you can record yourself saying "picture one, f stop 2.8, shutter speed 2 seconds." Then again as you have tried another setting "picture seven, f stop 22, shutter speed 1 minute."

These are just examples but they really work. Don't forget the basics with your night time photography such as wide aperture and slow shutter speed and the necessity of a tripod.

If you are in a moving vehicle for example and you are taking shots of Christmas lights from a bus or car, then you can always use the maximum aperture and a smaller shutter speed. For example f stop 1.4 and a shutter of 1/350 or higher.

And don't forget if you do have the time to set up a tripod and try the bracketing technique (ideal) also remember if you have the shutter open for a while the light can bounce off other objects such as windows and roofs. If you get too much reflective light, simply reduce the time the shutter is open.

Good luck and may you have a beautiful Christmas!

Happy Shooting,

Amy Renfrey

P.s Take a look at the photo used to describe the article; http://www.nomorebadphotos.blogspot.com

Amy Renfrey is a digital photographer, teacher and author of ?Digital Photography Success.? She?s sold tens of thousands of copies since the start of 2005 when she went online. Amy?s new book, soon to be released, titled ?Advanced Digital Photography? to propel photography enthusiasts from amateur to semi professional level. Amy is known for her thorough and easy to read style, giving her readers challenges and expert advice to get their precious memories looking like picture perfect images. ?Digital Photography Success? can be found at http://www.DigitalPhotographySuccess.com

How to Photograph Birds in Flight

Being able to capture good images using a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera can be extremely rewarding and some of the best pictures that we can take tend to sometimes be the hardest. Once we have a pretty good understanding of some of the cameras functions both on automatic and manual we can focus on the job of putting this information to good use. One of the hardest images to capture tends to be of something that is moving, but there are ways to make it a little easier to master…

Photo captured by gerry morgan (Click Image to See More From gerry morgan)

Photographing inanimate objects really is the place to start and by using the same object in totally different settings and light can give us a lot of information and feedback. It is also a good idea to place some objects up high so as to see what is needed to make these a clear and focussed picture.

Moving on from static objects with more knowledge we now want to explore the world of moving objects and photography. The technique of photographing a moving object is known as panning, this involves levelling the camera with the subject, finding it in the viewfinder (This is best done by first having the zoom completely in showing the object furthest away) zooming in and then focusing either automatically or manually.

When starting out using panning photography it is best to first revert back to the automatic settings until confident that being on manual will not be the difference between capturing the shot and missing a great shot. Once you have the image firmly locked on start to follow the images motion slowly with the camera, while at the same time zooming until the image is now the size that you want for your picture. Take the shot and review.

Learning to take good pictures panning can be achieved on a gradual progressive basis like this. Find a road that you can stand a reasonable distance from and not be in any danger from passing cars. For best results you want to find a fairly long road where you will have plenty of time to locate a car in the viewfinder focus, zoom and shoot.

"Bateleur eagle flying west" captured by John Booth (Click Image to See More From John Booth)

A good result should show the car as clear as if it was standing still and you captured the image using a tripod, while the foreground and background should be blurred from camera motion and not aperture settings.

Try the same method on a motorbike, this is improving your technique as it is not only a smaller object to focus on, but also tends to be moving a lot faster. Taking pictures of anything outdoors on the ground is always made better when the sun is behind you and certainly Not in front of you, this is essential to great results for panning photography, unless you want the images to be silhouettes.

Moving on again we are now going to focus on objects that fly. With anything flying it is always best to try where possible to capture the image from a side angle and with the subject as low down as is possible. This is because whether the sun is behind you or not if you photograph something in daylight looking straight up in will more than likely have the silhouette effect.

A good way to hone your panning skills of flying objects is to visit air-shows, or even by getting close to an airport. Air-shows are good as they have a variety of aircraft that you can practise on, not only that, but you can get some really good photograph sessions from air-shows.

"Crows - Towards the sun i fly, not as Icarus" captured by Hash Milhan (Click to See More)

One of the main reasons it is a good idea to start photographing flying objects by using aircraft is due to their overall size, this in itself tends to make panning photography with them a great starting and learning point.

Now onto birds in flight, using the car and aircraft theory we want to start off with something that is not only big, but also slow and graceful. That way we will find it much easier to keep track of and photograph while also making sure we can get the timing and lighting right. One of the best birds to start learning panning skills on is the seagull; they tend to tick all the boxes when it comes to getting a great shot.

The seagull is fairly slow in flight and tends to glide more than fly, not only that but they also do a lot of low level flying when it comes to catching fish or hovering in a bay on the thermals.

Moving on from the seagull should be a natural progression, but as a rule of thumb, the bigger the bird the easier it is to capture in flight. When you move down to smaller birds it can often be the case of hit and miss many times, but one little trick I have learned is that if there is a specific bird in your area that you are trying to photograph it is well worth simply watching his/her movements a few times before you actually try and photograph him/her.

By knowing which tree he/she is going to fly to or from can often give you an upper hand due to knowing the direction or target of his/her flight. Also setting up shots for birds is a good way of getting great pictures too. Using food to entice them or even a stick strategically placed on a riverbank can reward the photographer with a stunning image of a kingfisher.

"Freedom 2" captured by Steve Ardeona (Click Image to See More From Steve Ardeona)

Panning photography is certainly an art, but if the photographer studies and learns from initial attempts the end results can be pretty staggering in a relatively short period of time. Keeping the camera steady and smooth at all times is critical to the overall results, and it is even possible to use a mono-pod in some instances for even more clarity, but panning free hand should be mastered first.

About the Author
Photography is not just a great hobby and interest that people can enjoy and share with each other, it can be seriously relaxing and in some cases therapeutic. Expressing the many aspects of some great photography is myphotographblog.com. A blog that allows visitors to explore the many boundaries and wonders of modern day photography with some amazing photographs and links for added enjoyment. So whether you are a professional or a complete novice to photography make your way over to myphotographblog.com and be truly inspired.

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