Shooting Wow Pictures

Portrait Photography Tips - Shooting Wow Pictures

All budding photographers, as well as those who've been shooting for awhile, are all looking for the same thing. They want to shooting stunning photographs that capture the "wow" factor. It is not an easy thing to do, since beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, it is not impossible and rather than following rules, sometimes it is necessary to break them. Be random and boldly follow your instincts to find that special picture that makes everyone stop and take notice.
1. Change the Perspective - Nearly all portraits are taken with the camera at eye level. Change the perspective by changing the angle from which you're shooting. Get up high over your subject for one effect. From that vantage you may see an even more interesting aspect. Experiment with your composition.
2. Play with the Eyes - Eye contact or the direction in which the eyes are gazing heavily affects the effect of the portrait. Looking directly into the camera isn't always the most interesting way to shoot someone. It may be more intriguing to have the subject look off to the side, drawing those who look at the shot to wonder what's there, off camera, unseen. But be careful how you do this, because drawing the viewer's eyes to the side also takes their eyes off your subject.
3. Staying Focused within the Frame - In other words, have your subject holding an object, like a woman holding a baby, or a child holding a toy keeps the viewers eyes focused inside the frame and on the subjects. It creates a second point of interest and helps to create a story within the frame with the subject.
4. Composition Rules - Composition rules as listed in portrait photography tips, are made to be followed and broken. The rules are great to know and to use, but stretching them, or pushing to the outer limits makes for more interesting portrait art. Learn the rules, get comfortable using them, then learn to break them in order to achieve a more eye catching result.
5. Experiment with Lighting - The possibilities are endless with lighting. You are hindered only by your imagination and ability to be creative. There is no good and bad. So go ahead and play with the lighting. You might surprise yourself. Sidelight, back-light, silhouette, the possibilities are infinite.
6. Make Subject Move - Interesting portraits happen when you take the subject out of his or her comfort zone. Make them move. Put them in clothing or in a setting where you wouldn't ordinarily find them. Surround them with stuff that says who they are, but make them react differently to it. For instance, put them in business attire in an office, but have them jump up and down or read a book upside down. Again, be creative.
7. Don't Stage the Photo - Shooting candid shots are better than posing the subject. People, and kids in particular tend to tense up and hide rather than reveal their personality when the picture is staged and they are required to pose. Photograph your subjects while they work or kids while they play. Try to catch them reacting naturally to their environment.
8. Using Props - Enhance your shot by creating another point of interest with a prop. For example, if you're shooting a doctor, let them be wearing a stethoscope or holding a skull. Be careful not to let the prop dominate the picture, let it be part of the picture telling part of the story.
9. A Part of the Whole - Try focusing on a part of the whole, for instance, instead of shooting the head and shoulders of your subject, take a picture or two of their hands, or their back, or maybe even a shoulder with a special tattoo, keeping the face in shadow. Be dramatic and bold. Sometimes what is left out of the shot is as important as what is left in.
10. Variation on a Theme - Obscuring your subject in order to focus on one particular aspect works well too. In other words, shrouding a woman in a shawl leaving only her eyes visible and looking at the camera. Possibly making the shawl match the eyes of the subject making for a dramatic color statement.
The possibilities for taking creative and dramatic shots are limited only by your ability to think outside the box. Know the rules, know how to work them, then learn how to break them for a more creative effect. Finally, take a series of shots... not just one... shoot often and quick... sometimes, in order to get what you want.

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How Cameras Work ( Single-Lens Reflex)

 How Cameras Work

A fully manual single-lens-reflex camera. See more pictures of cool camera stuff.

Photography is undoubtedly one of the most important inven­tions in history -- it has truly transformed how people conceive of the world. Now we can "see" all sorts of things that are actually many miles -- and years -- away from us. Photography lets us capture moments in time and preserve them for years to come.
The basic technology that makes all of this possible is fairly simple. A still film camera is made of three basic elements: an optical element (the lens), a chemical element (the film) and a mechanical element (the camera body itself). As we'll see, the only trick to photography is calibrating and combining these elements in such a way that they record a crisp, recognizable image.
There are many different ways of bringing everything together. In this article, we'll look at a manual single-lens-reflex (SLR) camera. This is a camera where the photographer sees exactly the same image that is exposed to the film and can adjust everything by turning dials and clicking buttons. Since it doesn't need any electricity to take a picture, a manual SLR camera provides an excellent illustration of the fundamental processes of photography.
The optical component of the camera is the lens. At its simplest, a lens is just a curved piece of glass or plastic. Its job is to take the beams of light bouncing off of an object and redirect them so they come together to form a real image -- an image that looks just like the scene in front of the lens.
But how can a piece of glass do this? The process is actually very simple. As light travels from one medium to another, it changes speed. Light travels more quickly through air than it does through glass, so a lens slows it down.

When light waves enter a piece of glass at an angle, one part of the wave will reach the glass before another and so will start slowing down first. This is something like pushing a shopping cart from pavement to grass, at an angle. The right wheel hits the grass first and so slows down while the left wheel is still on the pavement. Because the left wheel is briefly moving more quickly than the right wheel, the shopping cart turns to the right as it moves onto the grass.

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Basics of Photography - Introduction Exposure

Basics of Photography

 Introduction Exposure

OK. Now lets tell about Exposure.

Exposure stays the total amount of light allowed to come in the sensor, which stays measured in terms of lux. Again exposure stays solely dependent on board up speed or aperture, uniform the physical formula articulates so..

    Exposure = Ev . t

        Hv is the luminous exposure (usually in lux seconds)

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Basics of Photography - Shutter Speed

Basics of Photography 

Shutter Speed

The time assumed by you to the camera sensor for the amount of light aimed at it to receive remains called the Shutter Speed. In other words, the shutter speed is equivalent to the time the shutter remains open toward click a picture. Currently let’s forget about aperture, logically lesser the close speed maximum the bright entry into the sensor. Those fast action restrictions or those blurry act shots are all owing to shutter speed. Now there is no setting to the aperture nonetheless again a combination by aperture can give you great results.

Imagine a huge tiger freezed though jumping over a deer with a great defocus background. This is anywhere both aperture and close speed shake hands then create magic. Also unique should play safe by faster shutter speed which might get underexposed.

For example:

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Basics of Photography – Aperture

Basics of Photography

We thought of taking something for all the Trainees of Photography. An article which can make an amateur tell about the prime elements trendy a camera paving way designed for his growth as a Photographer.

For all the starters these three words may sound diminutive complicated, but here we stay to make you master them. To begin with, all three elements are important for production a picture, its more or else less a combination of entirely three working in equal basis. But at times we requirement to prioritize things, when we want to shoot a detailed kind of a picture. That’s when all these priority decisions comes into play. So previously we jump into looking interested in these Priority options lets character out what these terms essentially mean.

Aperture

Opening is a hole before opening for the bright to travel through it. In simple terms Better the hole maximum the light flow. These opening are also responsible aimed at the sharpness of the image relative to the quantity of light self-confessed inside.Resulting in a shriller image with very low defocus and then here is the aperture halt which is responsible aimed at determining the ray pinecone angle responsible to the bright spot.

Now we know what aperture halt does and this opening stop is very significant in determining the complexity of field of an image. In combination by the alterations of close speed and exposure we can regulate light hooked on the sensor and consequently on.

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