Travel Photography - Tips for Taking Great Pictures

Find out about 7 travel photography tips that will help you shoot some incredible travel photos that you'll enjoy for years to come.

Taking good pictures on your family vacation is pretty easy when you know some basic photography skills. Here you will find some really simple things you can do to take your travel photos from so-so to fabulous.

Add Some Drama:
By adding drama to your pictures, it makes them more interesting and visually appealing. One way to add drama is to show scale. You can do this by adding people or natural features to your photographs of big things like monuments, landscapes or the world's biggest Redwood.


Get Rid of the Clutter:

In the excitement of seeing so much of interest, it's easy to forget about the background. But before you press the shutter release, always take a look at the image you're photographing. In some cases, moving a few feet could eliminate unwanted clutter like power lines, billboards, or people walking through your picture.



Take Pictures of the Locals:

No matter where you are traveling in the world, learn how to say some basic things like "May I please take your picture?" in the local language. Make sure to have a small notebook and pen to write down names or emails of people so you can offer to send them a picture.



Candid and Unique:

Candid shots when traveling are the best, but occasional portraits of the family in front of spectacular views and famous landmarks are part of almost every vacation album. Don't forget to get in the vacation pictures too by using the self timer or remote shutter.

Always take pictures of things that interest you instead of taking pictures of things "you have to take" like those shown on postcards in the gift store. You can always buy some postcards to add to your travel souvenirs and save the really unique subjects for your photographs. Unusual subjects always make great travel photos so always keep an eye out for these unique photo opportunities.


Every Photo Has a Story:

You may also want to tell the story of your trip so make sure to take pictures from the moment you departed to the time you returned home. Include special vacation highlights like a fun activity you did, new friends you made or the place you stayed. After you get home and upload the pictures, select the best ones to tell the story of your trip and then proudly frame it on your wall.



Get the Kids in on the Act:

If traveling with kids, hand each child a camera (disposables are great for the younger ones) and encourage them to take pictures for their own vacation album.

And when you get home, you'll be sure to have a great selection of pictures to put in a collage frame and hang on the wall. Make sure to take notes while on your trip, so you'll have everything you need to write photo captions after you get home.


Camera Logistics:

If you have any plans for being around water, make sure to bring a one time use or waterproof camera.Watch out for salt water and sand as they can wreak havoc on your camera.

Remember that even for the most experienced pros, not every picture will be a keeper, so bring extra memory cards unless you have a way to upload your photos while your away.

And don't forget to prepare your camera for the next day by recharging the batteries and replacing the memory card. By doing this, you'll be ready to go in the morning!

As you can see, taking good pictures on your vacation can be easy and fun. AndArticle Search, by the time you return home you will have a lot of fantastic pictures to share with your friends and family.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Autumn Lockwood is a writer for Your Picture Frames.com. If you're looking for a wide variety of picture frame sizes like 8x10 frames or big sizes like 11x14 picture frames or larger, then visit our website or call us at 1-800-780-0699.

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Photography 101: Five Tips To Get You Started

If you're learning photography, this article will give you five important tips to help take better pictures. With these five tips you can start using them right away so you can start seeing a difference in the quality of your pictures.

While you can't of course learn everything in one article about photography, this article provides 5 tips on the basics. Whether you have a point and shoot camera or are the proud owner of an SLR, there are a few basic concepts that once understood will get you on your way towards taking excellent photos. Here are five important and easy to use tips that you can put to use right away.

1) Resolve to Have Enough Resolution:

Yes, a low resolution setting saves space on your memory card, but it doesn't make for suitable prints. You can easily resize for a smaller picture, even in free programs like Picasa ("resize" is hidden there under "export"), but making a picture larger usually brings awful results. When you enlarge the photo, the pixels that make up the picture are spread thinner.

If you plan to print your pictures, choose medium or high resolution. Depending on your camera, 3 mega pixels should give you high quality 4x6 images and sometimes even a very nice 8x10. For excellent quality 11x14's go for 6 mega pixels.



2) Let There be Light (but Make it the Right Kind):

Natural lighting is almost always best so don't worry if you don't have a flash or any fancy equipment. If your only flash is the built-in one, that's all the more reason to opt for natural light. Built-in flashes can make subjects look flat. That is why professional photographers use an external flash and bounce light off photo umbrellas. There are inexpensive tricks you can do like wearing a white shirt or taping foil to the camera to bounce the light off the ceiling, but if you want an easy way to get professional quality photos without extra equipment it's best to go outdoors.

When taking pictures outdoors, consider the position of the sun. With the exception of sunrise and dawn, the lower the sun is in the sky the better. Noon brings the harshest shadows. Unless the sky is an important part of your picture, bright overcast produces the best light.



3) Compose a Perfect Picture:

Getting a fast snapshot of something without any thought mostly depends upon luck. But by learning how to compose a picture first, you have more creative control and you will end up with more photographs suitable for framing. The photos you take will look more like what you pictured when you clicked the shutter release.

There is a lot to learn about photo composition, but for starters, here is the number one rule. Fill the frame of the viewfinder. First, decide on what is the most important subject in your photo and then move close enough (or zoom-optical zoom is best) to fill the viewfinder with the subject. For example, if the subject is your grandmother watering her petunias then that's the subject not her entire yard. Many people make the mistake of losing their subjects in the background.



4) Steady Now:

It doesn't take much camera movement to create a blur, in fact most times, you'll never even notice the movement until you see the blurry picture. For sharp photographs, keep your elbows down, feet apart and hold the camera steady while pressing (not punching) the shutter release. Continue holding still until the camera's light has indicated it is done taking the photo. When you are taking a photo that needs a slower than usual shutter speed, like a fireworks display, use a tripod to steady the camera. You can also use other items as props to set your camera on as long as you have a remote shutter release. A good rule of thumb is to use a tripod for shutter speeds slower than 1/60.



5) Share Your Creations:

If your pictures are digital, use a photo editor to resize the copies of your photos (save originals first) down to the appropriate size for your website, email or picture frame. Use photo-printing paper that is compatible with your printer model. If you're using a film camera but want photos for email or a website, use a quality scanner or when dropping off film to be developed, request a CD. 



Frame your best photographs for hanging on your walls or displaying on a table. A framed photograph also makes a very welcome gift, especially when the subject is a portrait. Remember a portrait can be of a single person, family, multiple friends or a beloved pet...the list is endless, and again, these make lovely giftsArticle Submission, especially when framed nicely.



By using these 5 tips you'll help to expand your photography knowledge so you can contنشر الرسالةinue to take even better looking photographs.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Autumn Lockwood is a writer for Your Picture Frames.com. Your Picture Frames offers a lot of unique frames from floral decorative frames to frames that hold pictures floating in the frame. No matter what you want, we have the frame you want on our website.

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Children’s Photography - Tips for taking great pictures of Children

Seven tips for making children's photography a rewarding experience.
Children’s photography can either be a very enjoyable and rewarding experience or a difficult and challenging one.  Here are seven tips to achieving the former and avoiding the latter. 

1)      Choose a proper setting.  One of the more recent trends in children’s photography is using a natural setting rather than a studio setting.  A park, beach or mountain setting not only provides a better backdrop but will make it more fun for the child.  To the child, going to the studio may feel a little like going to the dentist’s office.  Of course a studio provides for a more controlled environment, but in a natural setting you have a better chance of capturing the child smiling on their own.  Let them play and explore the world around them.  This will provide for some great candid photos rather than posed ones.  Of course if you are using a studio setting there are still several things you can do to make your pictures amazing.

2)      Get to know the child.  Successful children’s photography is about getting the child to work with you, not forcing them.  To do this they need to like you and trust you.  Although there are exceptions, most children would rather do a thousand other things than get their picture taken.  They need to see that the experience is going to be better than they had first though and that you are not the dentist.  Talk to them.  Ask them how old they are, ask about their school, ask about their favorite things to do in the summer.  What you learn from the child can help you as you start to take pictures.  For example, if the child is small you may want to ask what their favorite animal is and then use that animals sound to grab their attention when they start to lose interest.  Children establish relationships much faster than adults.  With only a few words you can build a relationship with a child that will help them trust you.  Keep the conversation going and interesting as you start to take pictures. 

3)      Let them choose a pose.  This is especially important when the session is first starting.  Let them sit, stand, look at the camera any way they want and snap a few pictures.  Maybe the pose is a good one, maybe it isn’t, but let them pick a pose or two at the start.  After they have done that they will typically be much more willing to let you have a turn telling them how to sit or stand.  If they start to become frustrated, let them pick a pose again to loosen them up and then go back you instructing them.  Children’s photography takes patience and that sometimes means yielding a little control.

4)      Make it fun.  Children’s photography is a different animal, and needs to be fun for the child.  This is much easier in an outdoor setting but can work in a studio as well.  This also ties into the previous point of letting them choose a pose.  Maybe they want to stand on their head, maybe they want to have a picture of them jumping in the air.  Whatever loosens them up and gets them to smile. 

5)      Go to their level.  Don’t tower over small children.  Stoop down and talk to them.  Let them see and talk to you at eye level.  This also applies to how you talk to them.  Talk to children in a fun tone and more like a friend would talk to them rather than an authority figure.

6)      Use props.  Stuffed animals, squeaky stuffed animals, feather dusters, noise makers.  These are all essential in grabbing and holding the attention of a small child.  The smaller the child, the more important it is to have a good inventory of props at your disposal. 

7)      Respect the child.  Let them guide the session.  If they are hungry it isn’t going to workFeature Articles, if they are tired it isn’t going to work.  The smaller they are the more difficult it is going to be to force them.  Don’t try until they are ready.  Children’s photography is about getting great pictures of children and that happens most easily when they are working with you instead of against you.

Article Tags: Childrens Photography
Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

For more information about children's photography visit Mary Kim Photography at
 www.marykimphotography.com

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Flash Photography Tips and Techniques

Flash photography is the use of a camera flash bulb in a variety of possible situations where there doesn’t seem to be enough light.  The most common use of flash photography is group portraits at gatherings where there is not enough light to take a satisfactory exposure.

But there are many other situations where the flash could be used such as:  fill-flash situations when the background is brighter than the subject, using the flash to light up a room and creating better coloring, or using the flash to freeze a moving object in a dark situation. 

Indoor Flash Photography:
In typical indoor situations there will probably not be enough light to take a normal hand-held well-exposed photo.  There are many indoor flash photo opportunities you may be faced with.  You may want to cast light on a group of people for a portrait photo.  You may want to throw light into a room for an architectural photo.  Or you may just want to cast light on certain objects in a lighted room that appears too dark for an exposure.   
If your camera’s auto-exposure settings say that the photo would require a shutter speed slower than 1/60 of a second then you probably shouldn’t hand-hold the camera or the photo would come out blurry.  The reason it would come out blurry is because the shutter would be open long enough for any minor hand shake to distort the composition.  The use of a tripod or faster film will probably be needed but many of us do not regularly carry a tripod.  Most photographers simply use their flash bulb when they are inside.   
In order to take effective indoor flash photos there are some techniques you should keep in mind.  When using the flash do not point it directly at a mirror or glass that will create a lens flare or just ruin the photo.  Stand close enough to your subjects so the flash is actually effective (four to ten feet).  Try to make sure your main subjects are about the same distance away from the flash as each other or some that are closer to the flash will appear brighter than ones that are farther away. 

Fill Flash Situations:
Fill flash fills in the areas of a photo that would normally appear too dark.  Fill flash can be used for sunny day portraits for shadows on a subject’s face or to fill any shaded area that is out of the sunlight.  Fill flash can also be used to cast light into a room where there are no windows.  Fill in flash is ideal for back-lit and side-lit situations.  In a backlit situation there will be a lot of light in the background but no or little light cast on the front of the subject.  This would normally create somewhat of a silhouette effect, but with a fill flash it would balance the photo nicely.  But in order for this technique to work, you must be careful to stay in flash range which is usually around four to ten feet.  With common cameras in order to add fill flash to a photo just toggle the flash to go off when it normally would not be needed. 

Other Types of Flash: 
Many newer cameras now have a red-eye reduction mode where the flash may fire before the picture is taken in order to cause the subjects’ pupils to contract.  The red-eye reduction modes in newer cameras are surprisingly effective and many work in different ways to contract pupils. 
A slow sync flash is for more complicated exposures and is used commonly to create blurry long exposures.  The flash fires at the beginning of the exposureScience Articles, but the shutter still stays open for a moment after the flash has fired.  This can freeze a car at dusk and create a blurry streak in the cars path.  Or the slow sync flash could capture a sunset and freeze a closer subject that is moving through the frame.  There are countless situations where a slow sync flash could possibly be used to enhance an exposure.  There are also other versions of the sync flash such as the rear sync flash (where the flash fires at the end of an exposure) or the stroboscopic flash (where the flash fires multiple times throughout an exposure). 
Many photographers also choose to bounce the flash off a wall or ceiling to get a softer diffused kind of light commonly sought after for portraits.  This kind of flash technique requires a flash that can be aimed in a direction that the camera is not pointed.  It takes practice to refine this technique and only a small percentage of photographers actually use it. 

Conclusion: 
Practice using flash in your photos even when it is not necessarily needed and pay attention to your results.  The best way to become better at flash photography is to analyze your photos and try to figure out what you could have done differently in order to create a better flash-filled exposure.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Richard Schneider is a digital photography enthusiast and founder of Photography Tips which offers tips and news about digital photography, digital camera reviews, photoshop tutorials.  Please also visit Free High Resolution Wallpaper where there is free desktop wallpaper available.

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