Smaller isn't always better...when it comes to Point & Shoots

Nowadays everyone is soooooooooooooooooooo excited by small. Smaller cell phones, smaller laptops AND smaller cameras. But did you know that the darling, credit card slim camera won't take photos of the same quality as it's slightly bulkier brethren? Sorry, it's the truth.

Point and shoot cameras have very small image sensors that actually record the photo. The smaller the sensor the "smaller" the image quality. Really, smaller sensor = lower quality. Photo sensors stacked on top of each other, scrunched up in the tiniest of spaces start interfering with one another.

So...you want the smallest, cutest, sassiest little camera on the market? No worries. You're more than welcome to purchase it and enjoy it. The resulting photographs might not be as sharp, as clear, as colorful as those you'd take with a larger point and shoot.

If you're only planning to share your photos online, via e-mail, in slide shows, on a site like Facebook, MySpace, Photobucket, Flickr, yadda, yadda, etc., then you're fine with just about any point and shoot. You can probably even print out snapshot sized photos (4x6) with little to no issue.

If you need to carry your camera in your back pocket or in the smallest compartment in your purse or backpack, then the smalles point and shoot camera is the best choice for you. Because, really, the camera you will carry with you to capture those memories and photo ops is the best camera around, no matter the size.

The Rule of Thirds is a rule of thumb...

The rule of thirds is a photography "rule" that suggests you should envision your scene divided into 3 horizontal and 3 vertical divisions . Common thought suggests that placing a subject on these division lines creates more drama, or better composition. A common application is shooting a sunset. Many times our brain tells us to center the horizon line in the frame. However, you can capture much more of a beautiful sky just by tilting upwards and placing the horizon at the bottom third of the image.

The four points where the lines cross are sometimes called "power points" and are great places to place your subject. Many times a portrait will have a person's body in line with a vertical line and his/her eyes in line with a horizontal line.

Subjects do not have to follow these lines exactly, even placing the subject in the general area of these lines can help composition. And as always, rules are made to be broken, so if you don't like the way the "rule of thirds" makes your shot look, then ignore it, after all, it's your picture!

Becoming A "Green" Photographer

It's Earth Day! And I have to admit, I'm a bit of a greenie...not scary - chain myself to trees green...but I do recycle, compost, turn off lights, etc. It's amazing how many hobbies and past times are now going green. So, let's talk about green photography.

In essence a green photographer..."can be defined as one who uses renewable resources (environmentally sustainable) and is accountable for the human resource aspect of their activities (socially responsible)."

How do you "go green" as a photographer? Apparently there are several things you can do/steps you can take...some more obvious than others.

Shocker! Digital photography is more green than the old standard. So, sharing your photos with family and friends online or making use of digital photo frames follows along on the same principal.

If you take as many photos as I do, and Suzanne seriously beats me, then you just have to make use of rechargeable batteries. It's the responsible thing to do.

Be discerning! Be critical! Don't print less than stellar shots.

Gotta have a print copy of that photo? That's understandable. Grandparents still post their grandbabies up on the refrigerator. Printing them at home really isn't the greenest choice. Give a boost to local business and the environment by having them printed with your favorite local installation of a national chain. They can print cheaper and greener than you can at home.

Gotta print from home? You can be more green, too. Print on matte papers from sustainable sources. (Most lustre and gloss papers contain petroleum products.)

This last one's going to sound a little odd. But if you've got old film or negatives taking up space, you might try donating them to a scrapbooker or multimedia artist. I've seen them used in scrapbook layouts and mixed media art projects to great and interesting effect!

What's That Mean? Digital Photography Jargon

Ever get confused when someone asks you about photography technique, which we'll call photo-geek speak? We all do. I'm still learning new terms and techniques on a daily basis, and assume most of our readers are, too. Thought I'd start a short list of some of the most often used, then I'll let our two experts expand the list in future posts.

CMYK: Four process colors are used in printing and the varying ratios of these colors make full color print possible. C = Cyan (blue), M = Magenta (red) and Y = Yellow. There's two ways to interpret K. It stands for Key, and it's the last letter in Black. Both end up meaning the same thing. It's the color black.

DPI: This stands for "dots per inch". This is a measure of image resolution. For screen resolution, e-mail and slide shows, you generally see 72 or 96 dpi. For printing, I don't use much lower than 300 dpi. And for super-duper high quality printing and for large format work, the dpi just gets bigger.

Grey Scale: Not the same as black and white, necessarily. That's something I'll leave to the experts to explain. Grey scale images are made up of 256 levels of grey, with 8 bits of data or more per pixel.

JPEG: Stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. The group worked to create a standard method for image compression. Also known as .jpg. Almost all cameras allow you to default to this file format.

Pixel: A single dot on a computer display or in a digital image.

Raw Format (RAW): A RAW image file contains processed data from the image sensor of a camera. It consists of data written to the camera’s memory and needs to be interpreted by specialised software, then re-saved in a normal format, like JPEG or TIFF. Many professionals and adept amateurs prefer working with raw files, before any compression has taken place.

Resample: Resampling changes the resolution of an image. For example, if you have a print quality file, you wwould resample it down to 96 or 72 dpi to post it to a web gallery.

Have any other terms you'd like to discuss? Submit them in our comment section.

Fill Flash

Your flash isn't just for dark scenes...

A lot of people don't think to use their flash unless it's a dark room or a picture at night, but a flash can be used very effectively during the day to add to your portraits.

Reasons to use fill flash:

1) The sun is behind your subject, causing their face to be in shadow.
2) To fill in shadows (like raccoon eyes) when the sun is directly overhead.

How is fill flash different from "normal" flash?

If your camera has a fill flash setting, the camera reduces the intensity of the flash to a degree versus normal flash operation, which is at full power. If your camera does not have a fill flash option, you can experiment with taping tissue paper over your flash to reduce the amount of light. This will also soften some shadows caused by the flash.

How do I set my camera to fill flash?

All cameras vary, but usually you can press the button that looks like a lightning bolt repeatedly to see if it will cycle through your flash options such as always on, off, automatic, etc. When all else fails, crack open the user manual!

Example:

For lack of a better or more recent example, we will use these lovely pictures from last week. I75 was a parking lot in Ocala, FL so it was a perfect opportunity for my wife to play with the camera. The first picture is with no flash, and the second is with the flash turned on. And just for the record, I buckled up before traffic started moving again!

Getting Low: A Different View Makes for Great Pics

We had an awful lot of rain over the weekend and through Monday. Okay, okay...before you scratch your head I know this is a photography blog, so give me a little leeway here.

After a good soaking you may notice different varieties of fungus popping up in your yard. I always take it as a good sign that the soil is nice and wet, hmmmm...now this is starting to sound like a gardening blog.

Anyway, one of the keys to good photography is getting close to your subject, in this case the shrooms, and getting a unique angle. I literally had to lay on the ground to shoot this picture but I think it was worth a little dirt on my jeans. It's fascinating that mushrooms have so many layers winding around their bodies and it's something you wouldn't necessarily notice just walking by and gazing down from our human vantage point.

So the next time you want a shot nobody else has, just get down and look up.

Till next time.....

Making Friends With Middle Georgia Art Association

Hey Shutterbugs!

Like most folks I'm still learning my camera. It seems to be process that's never complete because digital and the cameras today have so many cool options and variables. I have a Cannon SLR and a Cannon point and shoot, so between the two of them I have a lot of choices. Folks learn in different ways, I'm more of a hands on type of person. That's why as an amateur photographer I've really enjoyed the Middle Georgia Art Association.

This week they had a night time shoot at Riverside Cemetery in Macon. We had loads of fun and came out with some pretty cool pictures. Before the event I kept hearing the term night painting, well I'm embarrassed to say I really thought folks were going to show up with acrylics and some canvas to paint the night sky. Nope, what they meant is a technique that leaves your shutter speed open for a good long time, like fifteen seconds or so. Then you shine light on different objects to get great effects.

This kind of stuff might make for a fun assignment for you to try in your own backyard. Just remember you must must must have your camera on a tripod or else you'll end up with just shots of blurry shadows.

If you want more information on the Art Association you can check out there website at www.middlegeorgiaart.org. They also offer camera classes taught by Lynn Barta (who is a regular contributor to this blog) and Jim Messer.

Family Photo Tips from Lynne!

Here are a few more tips to help you get the best photos that you’ll be proud of for years to come:

1) Check your background before you shoot. How many times do you end up with a lamp shade or a tree branch sticking out of someone’s head?

2) Take a few steps left or right to eliminate a distracting feature from the background. You may have to move the subjects to get a better background.

3) Blur out your background to put more emphasis on your subjects. This can be done by: using a low number on your aperture setting, using a telephoto lens (or move away from your subjects and then zoom in), or move your subjects farther away from your background).

4) Fill the frame. Move in as close as you can to fill the frame. This will eliminate a lot of the unwanted background.

5) One more thing. If you are shooting indoors and you are using a digital camera and your photos look yellow or green, be sure to check your white balance and change it according to the type of light that you are shooting in.

Memory Making - Top Tips for Better Family Photos

Easter is this weekend, followed closely by Mothers' Day, Memorial Day and eventually Fathers' Day. These holidays seem to beg for family photos. Thought you might like some ideas on ways you can make sure your photographic memories of these family moments are the best they can be!

DO: Get Close! You're family, act like it. There's nothing harder than fitting all the key players into a shot, but when you do get close and act like you, you know, "like" each other, you get a better family photo. Try having family members stand at easy angles, with their shoulders slightly overlapping.

DON'T: Make Grandma & Grandpa Stand Forever! It takes time to set up, take and retake family photos. Make sure there are chairs for the more senior family members. It not only keeps them from tiring out, but it's easier to cluster and get close.

DO: Discuss Fashion! You don't want to look like a sports team with too matchy-matchy outfits, but you don't want colors and patterns clashing for top attention when the focus of the photo is family.

Don't let the outfits overpower the family!

DON'T: Tilt-A-Photo! A lot of folks think tilting their heads toward one another gets you in closer and gets a better picture. Not so much. Why not? It detracts because the viewer ends up tilting their own head to try to get things in the right perspective.

DO: Blur the Background! YIKES. Some photographers think blur = bad. Again. Not so much. Blurring the background keeps the focus where it should be, on the foreground, which in family photos = the family.
It won't be easy, I can tell you that, especially if you're taking a wide shot and have crazy uncles that always manage to mess up the family photos. In fact, I'm going to see if I can't get Lynne to write something up on this!

DON'T: Be Strict and Overly Regimented! Why must your family photo look like exactly the same as every other family photo taken in your family's history? Spice things up! Let the kids get grubby, don't you want the memories to be real? Replace stiff smiles with real laughter. Family photos of kids should look like kids, scrabbling in the dirt, splashing in the water, etc. Like to take family hikes? Take some pics on the trail. Be creative and have fun. Your pictures will look the better for it.

Maybe you don't want to go this far, but...

Family photos should reflect your family, above and beyond anything else. Hope you all take some great photos with your families this weekend!

Shooting In Low Light

Hi fellow photographers! I thought I would send along a few tips on photographing in low light conditions or at night. This can be a little tricky. One of the most important pieces of equipment for this shoot may be your tripod. If you don’t have one, find something sturdy to place your camera on (or carry a beanbag with you and place it on that). You can either use a remote for the shutter button or set your self-timer). That will help with eliminating the blur from moving the camera. O.K., now to the technical part.

Set Your Aperture: Pick an appropriate aperture (f-stop) setting. For long night exposures (30 seconds or more) it is often recommended to use a bigger number (smaller opening) aperture such as f16 or f22 in order to capture crisp detail in the foreground and background. If your camera does not offer long exposure (at least 30 seconds), you should try using an aperture setting of f2.8 or 5.6 in order to capture enough light for a properly exposed photograph. Keep in mind that with smaller number apertures, focus will start to become a major issue. If you are photographing a landscape where the objects are mostly far away from your lens, try using a small aperture (say, f22), and focusing manually to infinity (as far out as you can focus). This technique often gives good results in situations where it is otherwise difficult to focus.

Point And Shoot Camera Users: Don’t despair. You can also shoot at night. Set your camera to the M setting (manual). Push the Func/Set button (in the middle of your wheel), push the Menu button (may be at the bottom right of your camera). You want Long Shutter and then you start playing with the times. Try anywhere between 1-6 seconds and see what happens. As mentioned above, you will need a tripod or a way to steady your camera. Good luck and have fun!