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If you don't have or can't create a photo studio, concentrate on environmental portraiture. Show the subject and also his surroundings. These tend to work best if you can enlarge the final image to at least 11x14 inches. In any smaller photo, the subject's face is simply too small. Taking photos that will enlarge well is a whole art by itself. Your allies in this endeavor will be a low ISO setting, prime (rather than zoom) lenses, a tripod, and at least a mid-range digital SLR. There are two elements to a photo studio for portrait photography. One is a controlled background. You want to focus attention on your subject and avoid distracting elements in the frame. Probably the best portraits aren't taken against a gray seamless paper roll. On the other hand, you are unlikely to screw up and leave something distracting in the frame if you confine yourself to using seamless paper or other monochromatic backgrounds. You don't have to build a special room to have a controlled background. There are all kinds of clever portable backdrops and backdrop supports that you can buy or build. If you absolutely cannot control the background, the standard way to cheat is to use a long fast lens, e.g., 300/2.8. Fast telephoto lenses have very little depth of field. Your subject's eyes and nose will be sharp. Everything else that might have been distracting will be blurred into blobs of color. |
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If you don't have or can't create a photo studio, concentrate on environmental portraiture. Show the subject and also his surroundings. These tend to work best if you can enlarge the final image to at least 11x14 inches. In any smaller photo, the subject's face is simply too small. Taking photos that will enlarge well is a whole art by itself. Your allies in this endeavor will be a low ISO setting, prime (rather than zoom) lenses, a tripod, and at least a mid-range digital SLR. There are two elements to a photo studio for portrait photography. One is a controlled background. You want to focus attention on your subject and avoid distracting elements in the frame. Probably the best portraits aren't taken against a gray seamless paper roll. On the other hand, you are unlikely to screw up and leave something distracting in the frame if you confine yourself to using seamless paper or other monochromatic backgrounds. You don't have to build a special room to have a controlled background. There are all kinds of clever portable backdrops and backdrop supports that you can buy or build. If you absolutely cannot control the background, the standard way to cheat is to use a long fast lens, e.g., 300/2.8. Fast telephoto lenses have very little depth of field. Your subject's eyes and nose will be sharp. Everything else that might have been distracting will be blurred into blobs of color. |
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While you may understand how to utilize the simpler features on your digital camera such as the flash and zoom, or maybe even more complex features such as exposure modes, one feature that often remains a mystery to many casual photographers is the metering mode.
 The metering mode selected on a digital camera decides how the camera’s exposure sensor will react when a photo is taken. Put more simply, different metering modes determine how much light is needed and how long the shutter remains open. Center-Weighted Metering Mode
The Center-Weighted metering mode is without a doubt the most imprecise of the three metering modes we will be looking at in this article. Being more suited towards casual photographers who want to take everyday snapshots, this metering mode takes more consideration into the amount of light located in the center of the scene so that objects centered in the photograph are properly exposed.
Although you do not need to avoid this metering mode altogether, using the Center-Weighted metering mode may give you more impressive results with many of your photographs.
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Lens Care
The lens of your digital camera is its eye or window to the outside world. It is easily the most important component in any camera. To take care of the lens, make sure that you never, ever touch directly with your fingers. Also make sure that you put on the lens cap when not shooting pictures.
If you really need to clean the lens, use good lens cleaning equipment. Investing in such equipment is really important. Always use a good lens brush, lens blower and lens cloth to do the job. |
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Have you ever wondered how those professional photographers make their subjects stand out from the surroundings? For example, a flower may stand out against a blurred background, or a small insect is set against a blurred leaf. Well, its not difficult to achieve this effect.
The trick is to use the selective focus technique. With this technique, we can choose one part of the image to be sharp and in focus, while the rest of the image is kept out of focus. It's very useful in macro and close-up photography. |
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 Have you ever wondered how those professional photographers make their subjects stand out from the surroundings? For example, a flower may stand out against a blurred background, or a small insect is set against a blurred leaf. Well, its not difficult to achieve this effect.
The trick is to use the selective focus technique. With this technique, we can choose one part of the image to be sharp and in focus, while the rest of the image is kept out of focus. It's very useful in macro and close-up photography.
Note that it is in fact possible to achieve the selective focus effect using image editing programs. You can simply select one part of the photo, keep it sharp and then blur the rest. However, personally, I choose to shoot the image with selective focus because the effect always looks more natural.
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Have you ever been in an museum, art gallery or cathedral and wished you could shoot some pictures of their interiors? I was once in the Vatican in Rome and I was mesmerized by the sweeping ceilings, majestic interiors, stained glass and ancient pillars. Taking good photos of such environments requires some skill, usually because of tricky lighting. In this article, we'll explore some ways of taking good shots in a museum or cathedral setting.
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 Have you ever been in an museum, art gallery or cathedral and wished you could shoot some pictures of their interiors? I was once in the Vatican in Rome and I was mesmerized by the sweeping ceilings, majestic interiors, stained glass and ancient pillars. Taking good photos of such environments requires some skill, usually because of tricky lighting. In this article, we'll explore some ways of taking good shots in a museum or cathedral setting.
Get a Good External Flash
If you use a standard point-and-shoot with a built-in flash, you'll soon realize that its not sufficient for these type of photographs. Hence, the number one tip I can give about taking good pictures inside museums or cathedrals? Get a good external flash unit. Good enthusiast digital cameras (e.g. the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20) will have a hot shoe onto which you can fit an external flash. An external flash unit allows you to throw light 75 feet away, and are much better for illuminating scenes like this.
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Custom Framing 
Photography is an amazing art form. A photograph album is a catalogue of life's history as seen through the camera. People, animals, nature, holidays, celebrations and even disasters are captured instantly and recorded as part of history. It is through the powerful presentations of photography that we better understand the progression of time and life. Hampton Photo Arts has over twenty years of experience working with photographers as they seek to capture and preserve the history of families and communities.