Digital Special Event Photography Tips

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Five Tips for Better Christmas Pictures

When the holidays roll around so do parties, family gatherings and other special events. And that usually means the cameras come out. Here are five quick tips to get more out of your digital camera for those special holiday shots.

1) Use your fill flash indoors. If you're shooting an indoor event, chances are the light won't be natural. And while most cameras' auto white balance feature is pretty good, you can add a little insurance. Most of today's point-and-shoot digital cameras have a fill-flash setting. If you use the fill flash for your people pictures, you're more likel to get natural skin tones... without having to use Photoshop to fix them.

2) Beware of snow. Bright snow fools most cameras' light meters. Light meters read abundant snow as being medium gray - instead of bright white. The result is an over-exposed shot. If your camera has an exposure compensation feature, use it to "underexpose" the scene. With a little practice, you'll quickly figure out just how much adjustment will give you perfect snow shots every time.

3) Watch your backgrounds. Holiday pictures feature people with odd objects growing out of their heads more than pictures from any other time of year. Why? Because we decorate - and then pose our family and friends in front of, under or around the decorations. The result is a tree-topper growing from Uncle Ned's head or Rudolph's antler emerging from Cousin Nellie's armpit. Keep an eye on where you pose your subjects, and you can avoid this annual embarrassment.

4) Plan ahead. Will you be shooting the gift exchange? The family dinner? Your child's holiday concert? Take some time to get the lay of the land. Find a spot where you'll be able to shoot the action without interfering with it. For example, to avoid getting the backs of people's heads in your gift-exchange photos, you may want to shoot from almost behind the tree. A little advanced planning can make all the difference.

5) Shoot a story. Maybe the kids will be helping Grandma make her holiday cookies for the very first time. Imagine how everyone much will enjoy the story if you tell it from start to finish in photos. (And think of how much grandma will love having a slideshow of the event.) Lot's of holiday events lend themselves to story-telling. Caroling in the neighborhood. The holiday concert at school. Even putting up the tree or outdoor decorations. Opportunities abound.

Holiday pictures make great memories. And with these simple tips, you'll make your family's memories even more enjoyable.

   

Add Interest to Your Vacation Photos

Have you ever sat through an endless slideshow (traditional or digital) from someone's vacation? Chances are, if you did, you were bored. Wouldn't you like to be the one person in your crowd whose vacation pictures are met with anticipation instead of yawns? Here are a couple of quick tips for getting there:

1) Don't shoot what everyone else shoots. Everyone snaps a picture of Old Faithful from the benches. Find a different perspective to create interest. For example, catch the look on your kids' faces when they see Old Faithful for the first time.

2) Have the people in your pictures doing something interesting. A shot of Aunt Martha standing next to a gondola is great for her memory book. But take a second shot to share - such as Aunt Martha acting as gondolier, while the actual gondolier sits back and "enjoys the ride."

3) Edit, edit, edit. Sharing 20 or 30 shots of your vacation is nice. Sharing 200 or 300 is torture. Share only your very best or most interesting shots. Not only will your friends appreciate it, they'll think you're a great photographer. ("She only got 25 pictures, but they were all great. I wish I could shoot like that.")

With just a little forethought - and a little editing - your family and friends will always look forward to sharing your vacatoin photos.

   
Why is it easier to choose digital wedding photos for an album?

Keeping Your Keepsakes

Digital wedding photography offers couples the chance to save money by eliminating the need to go to the wedding studio for the wedding proofs. The initial digital photos are downloaded the wedding studio's personal website. To view the digital wedding photos you need only clink on the wedding studio's link, type in a code. And you'll be able to view all of your wedding pictures. Don't attempt to print them out, however, as thay are usually at a lower res. (this means they are ok for viewing, but “eh” for printing). Studios are convenient for many reasons:

• In some cases you can make your final choices for the wedding album right online
• The link is that it's available for everyone to look it
• Relatives from all over can view the wedding pictures on their time in their home and order prints
• You can create your own digital wedding albums for your computer with decorative wedding templates
• If storage is an issue you can host your digital wedding album on websites like dotphoto.com

   
Why should you go with digital wedding photography for a wedding?

Say, “I Do” to Digital Wedding Photography

One of the biggest photo moments in life is a marriage. A moment so special that couples will splurge for a professional photographer rather than leaving it up to ‘ol Uncle Mike. Since digital photography has gotten more advanced it allows people to take more detailed photos (which also makes something like Digital Wedding photography possible).

Digital Wedding Photography is when a photographer uses a digital camera for wedding photos rather than a film-based camera. One of the biggest advantages of using a digital camera is the same for any photo situations—the person will get to see the picture right away (which, for a wedding photographer, is extremely important). Going digital takes away the surprise away from the shoot. If he/she knows the picture of cousin Karen & Jesse came out bad, it'll become instantly clear right on the camera's digital screen, allowing the photographer to make the necessary adjustments to get the shot right (which gives the bride and groom more digital wedding photo choices to choose from in the end).

   

Shooting in a Crowd

Unless you're a six-footer, shooting in a crowd - at concerts, state fairs, movie premiers, etc. - can be a real challenge. Photojournalists, however, have gotten around this problem for ages using a simple trick.

Set your lens to wide angle, hold your camera up high, and point it in the general direction of your intended subject. Then just snap away. With practice, you can get pretty good at catching scenes that would otherwise have gotten away.

Some digital cameras - notably several "superzoom" models - have an even more elegant solution. They feature an LCD screen that swivels. You can turn the screen and angle it downwards so you can view your subject clearly - even with your camera held high over your head. This way, you can even use your digital camera's telephoto settings, so you can zoom right in on your subject.

Although I'm 6' tall, I frequently use this trick with my Panasonic FZ-50 superzoom. It comes in handy at zoos (shooting over barriers), Disney World (shooting over crowds) and anywhere else I may not have a clear view of something interesting.

If you'd prefer a digital SLR, but think this handy feature would be important to you, both Nikon and Olympus currently offer models with a swiveling LCD screen.

   

Make a Birthday Photo "Memory Book"

Here's a way to create a nice little photogrphic record of your child's birthday party:

Take a separate shot of your child with each guest - and have your child hold that guest's gift in the picture. Not only will these photos provide pleasant memories of each gues's thoughtfulness, they'll make writing thank-you notes much easier. (You'll know who brought each present.)

And as long as you're sending thank-you notes, why not enclose a copy of their picture in each child's note? Their parents will especially appreciate it.

   
Why would you want a CD of your wedding pictures?

The ABCs of a Wedding CD

Not too long ago the only way to see the final wedding pictures was to be at the person's house. The happy couple would have to lug out the big book and pass it around. Using digital wedding photography means that you not only get the classic album, but you can also get the final digital wedding photos on a CD.

If you go digital, when it comes time for wedding picture viewing you can just pop the CD in a computer or on the TV (through a DVD player.) Everyone will be able to see all the pictures at once. Also, since the CD is portable and easy to copy, you can bring it anywhere without fear of losing your precious original album.

   
Why do you get your wedding album faster if you use digital photography?

No waiting for Wedding Pics

No matter where you get married (a church, a wedding hall, a mountain top) they all have one thing in common—the wait for the wedding pictures. When a photographer uses film, processing needs to be done in order to produce the pictures and this means you need to wait. Usually, this wait is long since wedding studios often have a back log of wedding photos that need to be processed. *Since digital wedding photography needs no processing, that process is eliminated from the equation—dramatically reducing the time it takes to get the initial proofs and your final wedding album.

   

Get Lots of Wedding Candids

Putting a one-time-use camera on each table at your wedding reception is a nice idea, but there are two drawbacks. First, it's expensive - by the time you pay for the cameras and the film processing, you'll have blown half your honeymoon savings. And, second, you'll only get candids from the reception.

But thanks to digital photography, you can get plenty of candids of your wedding, too - and you can have all the pictures for free. Here's how:

Invite your guests to snap away with their digital cameras at both the wedding and the reception. (No flashes during the ceremony itself!) Let them know you'd like to "borrow" their memory cards before they leave. Then post a friend at the exit with a laptop computer and a multi-card reader at the door.

As guests are leaving, they can stop briefly so your friend can download the images from their digital camera's memory card onto the laptop. (Create a new folder for each guest's photos. Name the folder after that person to keep things organized.) Now you'll have tons of candid shots of your wedding and reception - at no extra cost!

Post the best shots on a photo-sharing site like Kodak Gallery (www.KodakGallery.com) so all your guests can see them. Plus, they can order copies of the pictures they like right from the site. To let everyone know how to find the photos, print up instructions and insert them in your thank-you cards.

Voila! You get more great candids of your wedding - and you save a bundle in the process!

   

Make A Day at the Zoo Look Like a Family Safari

A trip to the zoo can be a lot of fun - and a great chance to get some terrific animal shots. Here are a few tips to make your zoo photos stand out from the crowd:

* Bring a rubber lens hood. It's handy for keeping direct sun off your lens. But there's an even better reason to use it. If you're shooting an animal behind glass, extend the hood and put it directly on the glass surface. This will eliminate reflections and prevent your flash - if you need it - from reflecting off the glass and into the lens.

* Watch your backgrounds. Try to shoot from an angle that avoids fences, bars and other man-made objects. This makes settings appear more natural.

* Use your zoom.If your camera has manual focus, don't try to get all your shots of animals up close. Instead, zoom out when they're away from fences and mesh. The farther out you zoom, the narrower your depth of field (the area in front of the camera that's in focus). Fencing or mesh that's narrow enough will "disappear" from your pictures if the animal is far enough away from the fence.

   
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Jennifer Mathes, Ph.D.