Nutrocker's Photographic Tips

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Photographic Tips

Got a camera? Want to take better pictures? Follow these tips and your pictures should improve. These tips are for 35mm SLR camera owners, Digital cameras covered at a later date.

Take your camera with you everywhere. This means you will never miss that shot. How many times have you said to your self "I wish I had my camera with me"? It might be a landscape you are driving past or just one of those lighting effects you only ever see once in a lifetime. Don't just take pictures willy nilly just because you have your camera with you, otherwise your shots will just end up looking like "snaps"! Don't forget to ensure the camera is fully loaded with film, the batteries are fully charged and having an extra set of batteries is usually a good idea.

For daily use have a bag with just the bare essentials. Such as:

35mm SLR Camera
50mm Lens
28 or 35mm Lens
70 - 300mm Zoom lens or your favorite telephoto
Polarising filter
Graduated filter
Small telescopic tripod
Extra film, varying speeds
Spare camera batteries and flash batteries

You really don't need to take much more than these, unless your off on a planned shoot in which case you would probably take all your equipment.

Composition

Rule of thirds: Never compose your pictures so that the subject is centrally placed. Always place them slightly off to the right or left. Use your viewfinder as an imaginary framed window where each frame is a third of the screen.

KISS: Keep it simple stupid! Try and not overload your image with too many details. Remember a person viewing an image is drawn to one part of the picture and then another part of the image. The brain sees imaginary lines of interest and IF there are too many then your picture will be too busy and any person viewing it will soon lose interest.

Lines of Interest: These "imaginary lines" tend to be diagonal or even triangular in shape. You could have the horizon placed two thirds down the image with a tree two thirds from the left. The viewers eyes would be drawn to the horizon and then follow this to the tree or vice versa. This same image may have some figures in a field two thirds from the right but below the horizon and the viewers eyes would be drawn to these also. In effect this would create a triangle of lines of interest.

In a portrait however the first thing a viewer will look at is another persons eyes, then the nose, mouth, ears, hair and so on. So when taking portrait's ensure the subjects eyes are in focus to ensure sharp eye detail.

Lighting

Always take a picture with the sun behind you. Well almost always! In some situations you may find a better shot by having the sun in front of you and then using a fill in flash to illuminate the subject. This can lead to some dramatic effects once mastered.

If the lighting is not quite right then why not use that graduated filter? Especially when the sky seems washed out. Another filter to use to good effect is the Polorising Filter. With this filter you can darken a blue sky to a lovely dark blue. Another use for the Poloriser is to remove reflections from water, glass etc. A Poloriser used on a really bright day with very colourful subjects can saturate colours and therefor enhance your shot. Try it one day by taking a picture without the Poloriser and the same shot with. You should see a big difference on the developed film if you used the filter correctly.

When is the best lighting? My favorite times are sunrise and sunset. During these hours you can probably take your most dramatic or moody shots ever! Another good time can be during storms, especially with some strong sunlight thrown in for good measure. Don't forget Winter! Think of some of the shpts you could get when snowing, frosty, raining, foggy, windy etc. A lot of these conditions lend themselves to long exposures and a tripod. Another tripod favorite is the moving water shot. Time and experience will tell you what is the correct shutter and aperture to use.

People

Ever been to Greece or any sunny country? Have you ever wanted to take a picture of some of the elderly locals? If you answer yes to this I can understand why. Some of the locals faces tell a story of what type of life they have had and you want to capture that for your self. What stopped you taking the picture? You never asked them if it's ok to do so of course! Just ask and you may be pleasantly surprised. Another way would be to use that zoom or telephoto lens and take a sneaky shot from a distance. But this may get you in more trouble than it's worth.

People don't always smile so never ask them to! If they want to they will and if not they won't. Sometimes the moody shots are the better ones.

Red eye: Red eye is caused by the flash light reflecting off the subjects retina and can be reduced by using an adjustable flash unit or a hand held unit. With either of these units, adjust the flash so that it points at the subject from an angle or bounce the light from a white ceiling or reflector. Try never to use coloured flash gels as this may spoil a shot rather than enhance it, unless you want a really weird effect!

In the Club?: Join a local camera club. Nearly every town will have one and you will meet like minded people trying to work towards that perfect, once in a lifetime shot. Or maybe they just want to get out away from their partner once a week! Sorry "love" just finishing!

The above is a rough guide on how to improve your photography. If you have any tips you feel should be included here please feel free to e-mail me and I will add them here along with your name for all to see, credit where credit is due. Happy snapping.

Don Davidson.

AKA Nutrocker.

Got some pictures you are really proud of? Landscapes, still life, cultural, special effects etc. Even the ones that show a slight photo mistake, lamp post or tree growing out of someones head, red eye etc. Like to see them on the WWW but don't have a web page yet! E-mail them to me and I will include them here on a new page yourname.html. Any pictures submitted must be taken/owned by you, and free from any copyright issues. Visitors to Nutrocker may wish to use them on their web sites or newsletters, ezines etc. All pictures must be free from any loyalties. So get your pictures scanned and eamiled to me no limit to how many you send, please use the jpg format, all images will be vetted before being included here. I hope to be including many that I have taken over the years, as soon as I can get them scanned!

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