Basically Holding on Your Camera
· Put both hands around your camera. Do it in a way that feels natural to you. Watch for fingers finding their way in front of the flash or the lens on tiny cameras. Check yourself in the mirror to see where your fingers naturally fall to see if they are getting in the way.
· Press the camera to your face. Tight is good, but don't push it in so close that it's uncomfortable.
· Drop your elbows down so they're against your body. This will help you steady the camera.
· Plant your feet firmly on the ground, about shoulder-width apart or slightly less. You can shoot from other positions, but this one is the most solid.
· When shooting, take a breath, exhale fully, hold your breath, then squeeze the shutter release button smoothly.
When you're using a fully zoom or telephoto lens, use your left hand to support the lens by cupping it around the lens close to the camera body. Hold on your camera in your right hand so you can activate the shutter.
Steadying the Camera
Small cameras are harder to hold than big cameras, and, without the inertia caused by the weight of larger cameras, they're more likely to move when you press the shutter. This can result in blurry pictures as the image captures both camera movement and the movement of your hands. The suggestions will go a long way toward helping you keep your camera steady as you're shooting. For slower shutter speeds or when you're not using a flash, make sure you brace your elbows against your body. You can also lean on a steady support to minimize movement.
Adjusting Your Camera
Spend some time working with the various dials and buttons on your camera so you know what their functions are and how to operate them. Some will have multiple functions and submenus. Never force anything into position; doing so may damage your camera or, in the case of conventional film cameras, the film. Camera controls should work smoothly, but if yours don't, take your camera into a good shop and have it looked at. If it is still under warranty, contact the manufacturer.
Holding the Camera Incorrectly
Camera shake can be reduced by holding your camera correctly. Whether you use a point-and-shoot or SLR camera, this hold is basically the same.
· Hold the camera close to your body
· Tuck your elbows in against the side of your body
· Keep a firm but relaxed grip on the camera
· Stand with your legs approximately a shoulder-width apart
The goal of these points is to stabilize your body and the camera so that the camera is as still as possible when shooting.
Common Technique Errors
There are some common mistakes during shooting that can increase camera shake. Avoid these common errors and your images will be much clearer.
Common Technique Errors
There are some common mistakes during shooting that can increase camera shake. Avoid these common errors and your images will be much clearer.
· Stabbing the shutter release button instead of pressing it
· Moving the camera from your eye quickly after a shot instead of holding it at your eye a moment after the shutter is complete
Slow Shutter Speed
While slow shutter speed is generally necessary in night photography, it is a huge cause of blurry images. Slow shutter speed is generally considered the greater of 1/60 of a second or anything under the focal length of the lens. For example, if you are using a 300mm lens, a shutter speed of 1/300 of a second may still be too slow for a clear image. However, if you are using a 28mm lens, 1/60 of a second is considered slow. Slow shutter speeds are a problem because the human hand is not steady. Large lenses such as 300mm increase the weight on the hand and create shake. Using a high shutter speed decreases the amount of time of the exposure and the amount of shake that can be transferred to the film.
Unstable Support
While slow shutter speed is generally necessary in night photography, it is a huge cause of blurry images. Slow shutter speed is generally considered the greater of 1/60 of a second or anything under the focal length of the lens. For example, if you are using a 300mm lens, a shutter speed of 1/300 of a second may still be too slow for a clear image. However, if you are using a 28mm lens, 1/60 of a second is considered slow. Slow shutter speeds are a problem because the human hand is not steady. Large lenses such as 300mm increase the weight on the hand and create shake. Using a high shutter speed decreases the amount of time of the exposure and the amount of shake that can be transferred to the film.
Unstable Support
Setting the camera on an unstable support for long exposure times is a very common cause of camera shake. While using a remote release is a great way to reduce shake from support issues, there are some supports that will never be stable.
· Overextended Tripods
· Vehicles That are Running
· Boats and Floating Docks
· A Friend's Back
Find a stable support, such as a soft backpack set on a flat rock, and use a remote release to overcome camera shake from unstable support.
Related Articles
shutter release connection
1. Finger - The standard way you are used to taking an image. Press the shutter release with your finger. In night photography, you need to be especially careful to press the shutter as gently as possible to reduce camera shake. This is the least desirable way of releasing the shutter in night photography but with practice, you can produce good images this way. One way to improve your finger release images is to use the longest exposure possible. This will minimize the visibility of any initial camera shake.
2. Remote Release - Remote release is the most preferred method of shutter release for night photography. There are two options for remote release. These are a cable release and an IR release. The cable release is a cable that fastens into a mount on your camera and has a button at the end of the cable. The IR release is a remote control like your TV remote. It operates on infrared light and must be pointed at the IR sensor on the camera to work.
3. Self-timer - This is a great work-around for those who do not have a remote release. The self-timer allows you to press the shutter button and remove your hand from the camera before the shutter is released. This prevents camera shake very well.
Night photography can open a whole new world to you and I hope you will give it a try. Like everything else in life, it takes some practice but the rewards are well worth the effort!
photographer Problems
Exposed Skin
· What is in Danger?
We all know to wear a coat when we go outside in the cold, but we often forget about our hands and faces. For your face, consider a ski mask to reduce the amount of skin exposed to the wind and cold. This can also help reduce the amount of water vapor you breathe onto your camera. A photographer's fingers and face are the most endangered in cold weather shooting. Often a photographer will take off his/her gloves while shooting in order to better handle the camera. This exposes your fingers not only to the cold but also the wind. Even if the ambient air temperature is not below freezing, the wind chill may be cold enough to cause frostbite.
· Protecting Your Fingers
Fingers cause a bit more problems for photographers. Fear of dropping the camera and difficulty in managing the controls with heavy gloves often leads photographers to forgo gloves altogether. This leads to quickly numb fingers and is a fast track to frostbite. Depending on how cold the conditions are, you may even be at risk for your fingers freezing to the metal on the camera. Layering your gloves is an excellent solution to frozen fingers. Wear silk or other fine mesh gloves first (even women's nylons with a few extra seams make great first layer gloves). Over these gloves add a pair of fingerless crafter's gloves. These not only add warmth, but can also help cut down on hand fatigue. The final layer is your normal cold-weather heavy gloves. These will be removed whenever you are shooting so a cord to hang them around your neck is needed to prevent losing them. Your fingers will still get cold with the crafter's gloves and under gloves (but more slowly).
How To Capture Natural Smile
Capturing a natural smile in your photographs can be difficult. All too often people grimace or give a forced smile when asked to smile for the camera. This is a natural reaction when asked to imitate what is normally a spontaneous emotional reaction. Each person's natural smile is slightly different but most have a few common features.
Relaxed Face - Most natural smiles are accompanied by a relaxed face everywhere but the mouth and the very corner of the eyes. A face that has furrowed eyebrows or drawn in cheeks triggers instinctual programming that tells us this is not a happy smile.
Slight Eye Involvement - A natural smile almost always involves a very slight narrowing of the eyes and tiny crinkles at the outside corners of the eyes. This is due to the smile pushing the cheeks up and not due to tension in the eyes. Some people will naturally widen their eyes just a bit to compensate for the reduced visual range from the pushed up cheeks.
Head Movement - Many people will instinctively tilt their heads slightly (either front to back or to the side) when producing a genuine smile. While a slight head tilt can enhance the look of a smile in a photo, be aware of your timing so that you do not wind up with a blurred face due to motion just as you trip the shutter.
Now that you know what to look for in a smile, let's find out how to capture that smile.
Relaxed Face - Most natural smiles are accompanied by a relaxed face everywhere but the mouth and the very corner of the eyes. A face that has furrowed eyebrows or drawn in cheeks triggers instinctual programming that tells us this is not a happy smile.
Slight Eye Involvement - A natural smile almost always involves a very slight narrowing of the eyes and tiny crinkles at the outside corners of the eyes. This is due to the smile pushing the cheeks up and not due to tension in the eyes. Some people will naturally widen their eyes just a bit to compensate for the reduced visual range from the pushed up cheeks.
Head Movement - Many people will instinctively tilt their heads slightly (either front to back or to the side) when producing a genuine smile. While a slight head tilt can enhance the look of a smile in a photo, be aware of your timing so that you do not wind up with a blurred face due to motion just as you trip the shutter.
Now that you know what to look for in a smile, let's find out how to capture that smile.
As you can see in this example photo, the smile is forced. As we discussed in step one, this smile has furrowed brows, too narrow eyes, and tension in the face. This type of smile, to some degree, is what you generally get when you first ask a subject to smile. This is rarely deliberate. Because a smile is an emotional event it can be difficult for your subject to imitate that emotion on cue. This is especially true of children. As people age them generally become more aware of their face and are better able to approximate expressions without the backing emotion.
The dilemma is that if you ask them to smile you get this forced caricature of a smile but if you don't' ask them to smile you get a depressed looking photograph. To get past this you need to put your subject at ease. A nervous subject will rarely produce a genuine smile. How you get your subject to relax will vary from person to person but in general you should be aware of what is making the subject nervous. Are they constantly straightening a sleeve that they think isn't sitting right? Are they rubbing their tongue across their teeth as though they are worried about how white their teeth are? Are they worried at glare on their glasses? By paying attention to your subject's mannerisms as they enter the studio you can get vital clues as to what is making them nervous so you can help calm their nerves.
The dilemma is that if you ask them to smile you get this forced caricature of a smile but if you don't' ask them to smile you get a depressed looking photograph. To get past this you need to put your subject at ease. A nervous subject will rarely produce a genuine smile. How you get your subject to relax will vary from person to person but in general you should be aware of what is making the subject nervous. Are they constantly straightening a sleeve that they think isn't sitting right? Are they rubbing their tongue across their teeth as though they are worried about how white their teeth are? Are they worried at glare on their glasses? By paying attention to your subject's mannerisms as they enter the studio you can get vital clues as to what is making them nervous so you can help calm their nerves.
When photographing people, the natural instinct when faced with a forced smile is all too often to tell the subject, "no, smile right." This just confuses your subject. For adults it will annoy them greatly in most cases and with children they will be completely confused. This is because people do not realize they are giving a forced smile. The result when told to "smile right" or some version of that instruction is to next give a confused mix of facial features. Brows are furrowed as the subject concentrates on trying to be natural, the lips do not spread widely, and the overall look is one of confusion or concern.
As photographers we need to be very careful in our instructions to our subjects. Just as we often have to pose them in ways that seem unnatural to get a good portrait, we often have to trick them into smiling naturally in an unnatural situation. Instead of telling them they are doing something wrong, offer praise and say something funny before the next shot. As we discussed in step 2, relaxing the subject is very important.
As photographers we need to be very careful in our instructions to our subjects. Just as we often have to pose them in ways that seem unnatural to get a good portrait, we often have to trick them into smiling naturally in an unnatural situation. Instead of telling them they are doing something wrong, offer praise and say something funny before the next shot. As we discussed in step 2, relaxing the subject is very important.
Own that we understand the smile and the reasons for "bad" smiles in portraits; we can capture that "perfect" smile. It's time to put everything we've learned together.
1. Put Your Subject At Ease - A nervous subject will never give you the smile you need to capture. Pay attention to their mannerisms and find the best way to put each individual at ease.
2. Don't Confuse the Subject - Even the most cooperative subject will not produce a wonderful smile if they are confused. Try to avoid telling them they are smiling "wrong" and instead work to make the subject happy. If you must tell those specifics try to ask them in a positive manner. For example, "Can you widen your eyes just a touch?" instead of "Don't squint like that."
3. Trick them if you need to - Sometimes the only way to get a beautiful natural smile is to trick the subject. Either snaps the photo as they relax their face from a forced smile or get them to laugh. With children it's easy to get them to laugh with silly props or by having they say crazy things instead of "smile." With adults a self-depreciating joke often works. Sometimes though, the best way to get a true smile from a subject is to smile you. Like yawns, smiles can be contagious.
1. Put Your Subject At Ease - A nervous subject will never give you the smile you need to capture. Pay attention to their mannerisms and find the best way to put each individual at ease.
2. Don't Confuse the Subject - Even the most cooperative subject will not produce a wonderful smile if they are confused. Try to avoid telling them they are smiling "wrong" and instead work to make the subject happy. If you must tell those specifics try to ask them in a positive manner. For example, "Can you widen your eyes just a touch?" instead of "Don't squint like that."
3. Trick them if you need to - Sometimes the only way to get a beautiful natural smile is to trick the subject. Either snaps the photo as they relax their face from a forced smile or get them to laugh. With children it's easy to get them to laugh with silly props or by having they say crazy things instead of "smile." With adults a self-depreciating joke often works. Sometimes though, the best way to get a true smile from a subject is to smile you. Like yawns, smiles can be contagious.
What is Red Eye
there are probably millions of family albums with red eye in the photographs. Red eye is a term commonly referring to a bright red pupil in photographs. The common reason given for this is that the light reflected off blood vessels in the back of the eye. More accurately, the light is reflecting so that you are seeing the light illuminating the back of the retina.
Causes of Red Eye
there are probably millions of family albums with red eye in the photographs. Red eye is a term commonly referring to a bright red pupil in photographs. The common reason given for this is that the light reflected off blood vessels in the back of the eye. More accurately, the light is reflecting so that you are seeing the light illuminating the back of the retina.
Causes of Red Eye
Red eye occurs when light enters the eye at almost level with the eye. Because light reflects at an angle equal and opposite to its entry (in layman's terms, it makes a "V" shape) if bright light (such as from a flash) enters the eye at almost no angle it will be reflected back, or visible to, the camera. This most often happens when the pupil of the eye is dilated and gives the light more room to enter and exit the eye.
Red Eye is Most Likely to Occur in These Situations
Built-in camera flash
Pupils dilated
Camera lens is level with the eye
Preventing Red Eye
Red Eye is Most Likely to Occur in These Situations
Built-in camera flash
Pupils dilated
Camera lens is level with the eye
Preventing Red Eye
Preventing red eye is not as difficult as you might think. To prevent red eye you just have to alter the angle the light enters/exits the eye or change the harshness of the light.
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