Archive for June 2011
Five Tips For Taking Better Photos of Children
Photographing Children? Here’s What You Need to Know!
They’re a delight to watch because of their antics and unbounded energy; they’re bubbly and cheerful, and their joy and laughter are infectious. However, when it comes to getting kids to pose for photographs, this energy becomes more than you can deal with – they don’t know how to sit still for formal photos, and they’re too conscious of themselves in casual shots and so end up looking awkward and forced. Photographing kids takes a special kind of skill, one that involves patience and creativity; so if you think you have what it takes, read on for a few tips that could make your job much easier:
5 Top Photography Tips for Photographing Children
- Candid shots work best: When it comes to photographing kids, it’s best to catch them in action when they’re not aware that a camera is trained on them. This way, you don’t get any forced smiles or cheesy postures; they’re at their natural best. If you haven’t been hired by the parents and if you’re a professional photographer who wants to shoot children for an assignment, ask for parental permission first so as to avoid legal hassles.
- Change tactics according to the age of the children: Babies are best photographed when they’re sleeping or when they’re cheerful and well-fed. They make good subjects because their movements are restricted. Older kids understand what you need and are amenable to poses, so it’s easy to shoot them as well. However, toddlers and younger children make the most difficult subjects since they cannot hold a pose for long. So either shoot them during natural activity or get your posed photos over in a trice – the longer you delay, the lower the quality of your pictures.
- Get down to do the job well: It’s an oft-repeated tip, but one that is extremely important – get down to the eye level of the kids you’re photographing. This makes your pictures look more effective and sharp and also allows your subjects to look directly into the camera instead of up at it.
- Capture them in motion: Some photographers do a great job in putting together a series of shots to create a montage that when framed, looks lovely on a home wall. Use the burst mode to take a set of quick shots one after the other when the child is moving or doing something – you can select the photos you want to print later from the collection you shot.
- Know how children behave: Kids are generally restless and don’t have much of an attention span, so don’t take too long for or between shots; get them over as soon as possible. If it’s a formal shoot, don’t schedule it when they’re cranky because they haven’t slept or because they’re hungry; choose a time when they’re happy and relaxed. Show the kids some of your shots of them so they’re encouraged to do a few more poses, and use settings where they’re comfortable and can have fun.
Photographing kids is a satisfactory job if you go about it the right way, so plan accordingly, and win over both the kids and their parents (if your photographing someone else’s kids) with your shots.
Ten Tips For Better Food Photography
We’ve all done it before. Taken a photo of a delicious meal only to have it turn out looking ugly and not edible. Hopefully these 10 food photography tips will help you take a more tasty-looking food photo next time.
1.) Keep the background clean
Make sure there is a color contrast between the background and the food, don’t have the two be the same color or a similar shade. For example, strawberries served on a red plate isn’t going to stand out. Keep the background simple and uncluttered. If unsure, stick to a plain white background.
2.) Adjust the white balance
Adjust the white balance on your camera according to what you’re shooting. Meat should always be shot in warm tones as a blue-ish tinge under some fluorescent lights would make it look ghastly.
3.) Use natural lighting
Whenever you can, try to shoot using natural lighting. Shoot during the day near a window where you would get plenty of natural sunlight. When you must shoot at night, try avoid using flash directly on the food as it’s too harsh. Instead, use a flash diffuser or have the flash bounce off a ceiling or wall.
4.) Use a tripod
Most food photography will be done indoors, where there might not be enough lighting. Use a tripod whenever you can as it beats trying to hold very still for long a amount of time.
5.) Small details make a big difference
Don’t disregard the small stuff. Keep in mind that using nice cutlery and a clean serving plate/bowl could make all the difference transforming a nice photo to a fantastic one.
6.) Get up close
Instead of only taking photos of a full plate of food, take some macro shots too. Getting up close to your subject will bring out the textures and finer details, making it more interesting and intriguing.
7.) Cut it, slice it, dice it!
As with anything, you shouldn’t just take something for its face value. With food, sometimes it’s what’s inside that can create a great shot. I love cutting up crumbed foods for the contrasting textures. I also love cutting up cakes just so I can get the different layers.
8.) Take photos from all angles
Don’t just take a photo from a bird’s eye view, try different angles. Left, right, top, bottom. Feel free to even move the food around and come up with different compositions.
9.) Use props
Don’t be afraid to jazz up the set. Maybe a glass of orange juice to go with those pancakes? A bottle of wine in the background with your steak and mash meal? Or maybe some hundreds and thousands sprinkled around your cupcakes? Do remember to keep it simple as too many props can be distracting.
10.) Cheat if you have to
As long as you’re not planning to eat the food afterwards, there are ways to enhance your food by using some industry tricks. For example, make your food glisten by brushing on some vegetable oil. Create that ‘fresh out of the oven’ steam by placing some microwaved cotton balls that have been soaked in water. Or make perfect-looking ice cream that won’t ever melt with some mashed potatoes.
Do you have any more ideas, tips and tricks to share when it comes to food photography?
Review – Nikon Coolpix P500
Nikon launched the new full-featured, compact Coolpix P500 super-zoom digital camera. The P500 features a 12.1-megapixel backside illumination CMOS sensor, a super wide-angle 22.5mm-810mm (35mm equivalent) 36x wide-angle optical Zoom-Nikkor ED glass lens, EXPEED C2 dual image processor, 1080p full HD video recording, a 3-inch vari-angle LCD screen, hybrid vibration reduction stabilization system with image-sensor shift VR and electronic VR, Backlighting scene mode, in-camera high dynamic range (HDR) function, Night Landscape and Portrait modes, Easy Panorama mode, Scene Auto Selector, Best Shot Selector and Smart Portrait System, and a new shooting mode button for continuous frame shooting and a pre-shooting cache.
The Nikon P500 is its usual small, light, handsome self, with only a few immediately obvious modifications from its predecessor P100. You’ve never been closer to the action than you are with this 36x wide-angle optical Zoom-NIKKOR® ED glass lens. Its optical zoom (22.5–810mm) pulls you in from wide panoramas to crisp close ups. Plus, a side zoom control marks the end of shaky zooms—freeing you to capture great action photos with minimal blur. So whether you’re shooting a wild animal or zooming in on a beach scene, say goodbye to missed shots. This lens catches it all. It even allows for macro shooting as close as 0.4 inches.
The COOLPIX P500 is all you need to shoot eye-catching photographs, thanks to the three-inch, tilting, vari-angle monitor. This 921,000-dot display not only makes it easy to capture, review, and share images, but it also enables you to shoot from unusual angles and tricky vantage points. The Clear Color Display has a brightness adjustment and an anti-glare coating, so it remains vivid in the most challenging lighting conditions. And for those who want even more compositional freedom, the versatile COOLPIX P500 comes with an eye-level electronic viewfinder.
COOLPIX P500 features a One-Touch record button that lets you shoot Full HD (1080p) movies at 30fps while recording audio with a built-in stereo microphone. It’s great for sporting events because it will record high speed activity in slow motion, catching action missed by the human eye. The COOLPIX P500 also has an HDMI-CEC output for simple playback on your HDTV or computer—so now it’s as easy to watch your own movies as it is to shoot them.
The Nikon P500 can capture five full-resolution images at about 8 frames per second in a single burst. That’s as fast as a high-end digital SLR, though buffer depth is quite shallow. Some of the competition in this category can do up to 10 and even 40 frames per second.
It built with Auto panorama modes. The dual processors also allow for a new trick for Nikon – Easy Panorama. Rather than shoot a series of carefully captured images and have them stitched in the camera or on a computer, the Nikon P500 allows you to capture either 180-degree or 360-degree panoramic images by just pressing the shutter and sweeping the camera over the image area. It’s pretty awesome feature, and seems to work pretty well.
Available in Black and Red colors, Coolpix P500 is priced at $399.95. Are you getting yours?
How to Make a Simple Light Box
Create your own light box
A light box is basically a miniature photography studio. Lit from the sides, front, top or any combination, a light box provides even illumination of any subject which can fit inside of it. Boxes like this are perfect for product photos (think eBay) and general macro and closeup photography. There are a lot of tutorials out there for making light boxes. There’s a good one for making one out of a cardboard box over on Strobist. I’ve had an idea for making one of my own kicking around for a few weeks and decided to build it this week. Here’s what I came up with. And it’ll only cost you about $5 (assuming you’ve got some scissors and glue) and 30 minutes of your time.
To build this you’ll need two pieces of poster board (mine were about 28″x22″), a pair of scissors, a sharp knife, a straight edge, glue, and tape. Start by cutting one of the pieces of poster board in half so that you end up with two 14″x22″ pieces. Then fold down two edges to create about 1″ tabs. Glue or tape them up.
Two pieces of poster board, scissors, straight edge, glue, tape, knife
Cut one board in half; you should now have three pieces of poster board
Fold 1″ of two edges down on each half
Two box sides; cut 10×15″ windows in each side
At this point you’ve got your sides, but now you need to cut some windows so we can get light into the box. Use a sharp knife and cut 10″x15″ windows in each side. Leave enough material around the window edges to retain some strength. Then glue the poster board you didn’t cut together with the two pieces you just made to create your finished box.
Glue the three pieces together for final assembly
You’re all set. What I’ve done now is loosely tape two pieces of 8.5×11 paper over the windows on each side to create diffusion panels. You can use a variety of different materials on the windows to adjust the quality of the light. Your lights will shine through these to illuminate the interior of the box. As for the lights themselves, I’m using wireless flashes. But you can easily use table lamps or any other light source you like.
Mmm, mmm good
Straight down angle into the box
Wide view; two flashes set at 1/16 power
Since this box doesn’t have a top, you won’t get perfect illumination on relatively tall objects without adding a light from above or a reflector (an umbrella works nicely here). But it is quite large (you can fit a laptop computer in there) and you get the freedom to shoot from a lot of different angles without having to fiddle with anything. For objects shorter than the box itself, it works fantastically.
There are a lot of different approaches to making one of these things. But hopefully I’ve shown you that it’s really pretty easy, it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, and you can get some very good shots using it.
