Give us some of your photo taking tips


~Natsumi Lam~

I think that most photos shouldn't be left without PhotoShop touching up like sharpening and fixing the contrast.

If you were glasses the picture when looking in the view finder of the camera looks clearer when you take them off most of the time or depending on the picture you are taking

Taking photos is remarkably like firing a gun in a way. Keeping your 'weapon' steady is vital to maintain a stable platform for accurate shooting.

When taking photos, if you have for some reason the shakes because its cold or because you drank too much red bull, do not hesitate to lean sideways against a wall for example or if you have a camera strap, push it all the way out and use the viewscreen as your viewfinder. As long as the camera is stable you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

Just because you have shaky hands, need not mean that you will have a bad photography experience.

Hmm... photo taking tips... photo taking tips... well, and this hasn't happened to me personally before, but I've seen it happen on TV more times than I can count, so it must be a real hazard I think... before taking a picture, TV experience tells me to make extra sure the lens cap is off >_> I know it sounds obvious, but obvious things can be treacherous 0_0!

Happy shutter bugging everyone ^_^

Another tip is if you want to take photos in public of the public, public buildings etc; you need to be fearless.

When in a club or at an event or just randomly walking around a City Center on a backbacking trip, the ability to just take snaps of people doing things without looking obvious, sinister and hesitant is a very valuable quality.

When I usually take photos in public, I try and be aware of whats going on around me, be courteous and not get in people's way. There is nothing more annoying than a photographer stepping backwards into your path as you're walking along, not knowing that there are other people using the same pavement or pathway.

Also stay calm and don't make a huge fuss about taking photos, the less attention you draw to yourself means your subjects will be less likely to notice you're including them in your photo and thus will be more relaxed.

Finally if you're in a club and you get cornered by some drunk idiot demanding that you remove the photo you just taken of them, either try and fake it that you've removed it or if that fails, just remove it, apologise and move on. Losing one good photo is better than ending up in Casualty.

One interesting point is that if someone comes up to you in the street and demands that you remove it because it is somehow illeigal to take photos of strangers without permission, keep in mind that under UK law, unless it is character assassination, you are free to take whatever photos without their permission.

It always helps to carry a spare battery with you especially if you're battery is a rare one you can't find at walmart or somewhere, like I use "A544 6volt"... you can't find those unless you go to a real camera shop.

If you want to improve your photographic eye, try choosing an object [not too small, not too big] maybe like a blender or plunger, and try to take as many different pictures of it as possible, so change the angle, add a filter, flip the object over, take it apart, place it somewhere it doesnt belong...ex. a blender does not go on your head like a hat. Its a good way to make something out of nothing.

If you use film, you can store it in the freezer so it won't go bad.

Never put your film in the microwave, it'll melt and spark, and...just don't do it.

For camera's like coolpixes or cybershots take a colored translucent object like red cellophane or a colored CD jewel case and cover your flash with it. When you take your picture, your object should have a hint of the color used to cover the flash.

help! help! i can't start my own topic here! please help me~~~ thx~~~

I use film, it just turns out better. and an slr camera,
make sure you pay attention to your film speeds, the higher the number, usually, the less light you will need to take a picture (1600 should be good for night/bar photos) but the granier the picture will be. so if you're doing day to day shooting, nature,whatnot, use a 200-400 speed. if you are using an slr camera, you can manually adjust your film speed to something it's not, that will usually help with your light metering, so you don't have to use that nasty flash.
also, if you are taking a picture of somebody in a shadow outside, or with a hat on, even if it's the brightest day you've ever seen in your life, you should use the flash to fill in any shadows on the face.
when my digital was still alive, I used to take pictures for a local band.
my problem was that if I was not using the flash, I got excellent pictures of the stage lights, but the members would turn out too blurry, because of their movements, most point and click digitals will recognize the flash is off and try to adjust the shutter speed for you, so it leaves the shutter open longer, and you get the blurriness...
solution?
a piece of electrical tape over the flash.
the camera thought the flash was on, and took pictures at full speed, but the flash didn't reflect on any of the band members, so I got the awesome lighting effects.
like in this photo

I think the same like +Dioma

[ I think that most photos shouldn't be left without PhotoShop touching up like sharpening and fixing the contrast.]

whit photoshop is everything easy

but i think is good to try make the photo really

"real"is not easy