Family Christmas Photos

Photography Club
Say Cheese. Or not.

The Christmas challenge is to photograph our children for the grandparents and for memory sake. We also want to take good family photos – for the Christmas cards and memories.

If your family is like mine, they start to balk when the camera comes out. How can we take photos that can be meaningful without capturing stress or having half hidden faces?

Here’s a few tips:

Have your child or family do something they love or something silly for the camera

Have siblings pretend to strangle each other or put up their dukes for the camera. Have them make a stuffed animal or favorite toy do something silly or pose with it by their face. Let them choose a silly pose. Then ask for a serious shot, too.

Let them do something daring and unusual, like roll in the torn Christmas wrappings or throw them in the air again and again. Maybe they’d giggle about painting their sibling’s face with whipped cream.

Take a photo of them engrossed in their own world

Sometimes stealth is the key – especially if you can get something outdoors or with natural light from a window. A baby sleeping, or eating something messy. A toddler concentrating on blocks. A boy engrossed in a bug collection. A teenager moodily listening to their ipod. They do not need to look at the camera and they don’t need to smile for every photo you have.

It’s also good to get one of them in a sports uniform heading out the door. On the playground hanging from the monkey bars. A teenager with her group of friends holding up shopping purchases and hamming it up together.

Christmas Specials

Use props. Christmas hats. Favorite cookies held up. In front of the tree. For family photos, it’s nice to have unified colors planned (all red and cream, mostly burgundy and olive green, blue tones, etc.). Christmas colors, boxes, trees… all make excellent settings. Consider going a day early before a Christmas market opens to get a shot of the background without the crowds.

Plan well before the shots. Full battery. Flash about 10 feet away even outdoors. Do not stand everyone in a straight line, but have some sit and stand. Turn sideways, arms touching each other.

Dudeldorf : Diane's Favorites

Dudeldorf had a community recognized as early as the 800s. Lord Dudel had a wall and towers built around the town in the 1400s. This historic little town gave us a great opportunity to try our photographic skills. Once again, we had a gray, rainy day.

We ate lunch in a restaurant in one of the original standing towers.

The church in the center of town was open, but no lights on. It was a challenge to take photos.

Our study for this day was on lighting. We talked a lot about taking indoor photos without flash. In the church and the restaurant we had a good chance to practice. We had a nice day together.

Photography Club
It’s all about the light
November 13, 2007

When I first took an interest in cameras, I asked a school yearbook photographer for advice. “It’s all about the light,” he said. “How much or how little you get, and how you manipulate it, makes the difference in the photo.”

A couple of things to know:

The Gray Card

The camera is a machine. It sees basic gray and adjusts accordingly.
“The Gray Card” is the standard your camera shoots for. Bright subjects need the light decreased and dark subjects need it increased. It’s good to know the exposure button. Play with it. Taking 3 or 4 photos at a different exposure is called “bracketing.” After you see them, pick the best one that works.

Backlight
Backlight is when you have a bright background, like the sun behind them, or bright snow. Your subject will be dull unless you use flash, even outside. This is called “fill in flash.” Or at sunrise/sunset we call a darkened subject a silhouette.

Best outdoor light for photos of people
A gray day (or better yet, a gray day using flash)
Early morning sun or sunset. Warm light gives a rosy glow, softens wrinkles/flaws
Sunny noon is the worst. Also be wary of shadows and side lighting, sunglasses, hats…

Best outdoor light for scenery
Early morning or late evening. Shadows are good. Warm light is good. Interesting.
Don’t be afraid of moods… snowy day, fog, stormy clouds, steam on the lake...
Best night photos is twilight. The sky looks darkening blue, but the photo will look night.

Indoor light with flash
Typical flash distance is about 6-8 feet. Too close and the subject is washed out. Too
far and the subject is dark. Better to be 6 feet away and zoom if you use flash.

Indoor light without flash
Subject must be still and camera still to use existing light. If action – get a posed photo.
Use a tripod or monopod to stabilize. If you have none, use a bench, table, chair, the
floor to stabilize… and set on timer if you really want no jiggle.
You can use light from a window, but must experiment to get it right.

Digital NOISE and ISOs
Night or dark digital photos sometimes have pinpricks of color. This is called noise. The digital camera has no idea what to do with the exposure. ISO determines how fast the light is let in (higher is faster – less light needed), but higher ISOs can sometimes be grainy or have more noise, too.

Most of our members use digital. We will learn more about digital photography another month.

Piesport : Diane's Favorites

Piesport is wine country on the Mosel River. Our first photography excursion is at this quaint town. It was a cloudy, foggy day. So the dynamite views from the scenic overlooks were shrouded in mystery. Still, we managed to get a few good photos of the place!

Our focus this week was on the rule of thirds and getting close to our subject to make photos more interesting.

Interesting Photos

11 October 2007

Rule of Thirds

Make imaginary lines like a tic-tac-toe. Follow your subject or the horizon along those lines to make the photo more interesting than a photo perfectly centered. This is quickest and most used photography lesson on creating interest in a photo.

Get close

Do you have photos with an immense beautiful background and your subject looks like a bug on the windshield? You’ll have a scenic photo. Get close to your subject and the scenery in the background will still be interesting, and so will your subject.

For digital: The higher the megapixels on your camera, the more you can crop. Experiment with both the rule of thirds and closing in on your subject. Try cropping your photo making 3 or 4 different ones and see which pleases you the most. Playing with digital is a great way to learn. And it doesn’t cost a thing.