up close and personal with phenom photography {part two}

My husband and I got married a little over a year ago and one of our biggest gifts was a real camera. Digital of course but you actually have to look through the viewfinder, to take the picture.  We fought over it the whole time and acted like we were professional photographers trying to get really artsy fartsy shots.  The funny part is, we have more pictures of butterflies than we know what to do with (I am talking upwards of 1000) and about 10 of the two of us together!  I do have to admit there are some great pictures; they are probably all the ones I took!

I felt it was time to finally learn a little more about my camera so I can really take some thoughtful pictures in the future.   The intense black and white photography class I took for a whole semester in college is somehow erased from my memory so I am starting back at the basics.

Reggie from Phenom Photography agreed to give me a little lesson during our Q&A session the other day. Without getting into technicalities like shutter speed, light, film speed, etc., here are some good tips he taught me that will make everyone’s pictures better.

1. If you have more than one item in the picture, you want to stagger them slightly so that it creates some interest and depth.

2. Don’t zoom in so close that you are only focused on the one object.  You want to give your picture a point of reference so when someone looks at it they get an idea of where the picture was taken.  This puts the whole scene in context for the viewer.

3. You don’t want to blow out the background.  In other words, you don’t want to shoot a picture where the subject looks darker and the background it all white light.  A good example of this is taking a picture of someone standing inside, in front of a window.  Your camera’s auto settings say you have enough light so you don’t need the flash.  This is really important for digital cameras.

4. Try to make it interesting.

5. Take pictures frequently, shoot the same things but at different angles, in different light, and on different settings so you get comfortable with your camera.  That way, when you see a great moment you know exactly how to capture it best.

So next Reggie had me take a picture of our coffee cups.  This is with no instruction.

Then he had me take the same picture but zoom out a little and adjust my settings so I let a little more light in.  I also arranged the cups slightly so you can see the Starbucks label a little (this gives the viewer context clues).  Already a better picture!   Then I zoomed out even more to capture what was going on around us.

Reggie set up this little still life to show me how you can lose details in your shot if you don’t have enough light and you don’t adjust your camera properly.   So here’s an example of when the auto settings don’t use a flash and don’t  let enough light in.  The second picture is letting too much light through so the light areas are blown out and there is no background.  This can be cool in some circumstances but you need to know when it is an appropriate technique to use.  

This next picture is the happy medium- just the right amount of light to see the details in the camera equipment but also have a background and frame of reference.  You have to be careful when deciding how much light to let into a shot because more light means more details will show up but you sacrifice the background.   You have to choose what details are most important when selecting your settings.

My lesson was definitely helpful and has made me more interested in learning about my camera and actually putting it to good use.  I hope this mini lesson helps all you photography challenged people but whatever you do, don’t use a friend’s wedding or some other special moment to learn about your camera because your pictures might suffer. 

Thanks to Reggie for all of his help!  Check out his website www.phenomimage.com and his blog with his personal work M.I.L.F.  for examples on really great photography in case my Starbucks pictures just aren’t doing it for you!