Quick Tip of the Day: see the world from a new point of view

One of the easiest ways to improve your photos is to change the angle you’re taking them from. Most peoples’ first reaction to seeing something they want to take a picture of is to just snap away from right where they were whenever they noticed the photo op. It will do you good to take a few seconds (assuming you have a few seconds to spare… if it’s a split second once in a lifetime photo op go ahead and shoot from where you are) and look around to see if there’s a better angle you could be shooting from.

I see a lot of photos of babies shot from about parent height a few feet away from the kids and just pointed down… does this look familiar?

The picture’s not bad. The focus is fine and the exposure is fine as well. It’s just not that great. The angle has caused the baseboard to run straight through the baby’s head. Not good. And it’s kind of boring.

My two favorite options for changing up angles are to either get really high or really low. When you’re shooting adults getting up above them usually means standing on something. Kids on the other hand are easy. All you have to do is get closer and angle your camera down more. This one is from higher up… but it’s still not close enough. The baseboard is still going right through his head.

But if we get EVEN closer and up higher…

Ahh… much better. Way more fun and interesting.

Getting down low is just as good. This shot is pretty much exactly the same as the first but from kid-level. In my experience it’s not enough just to sit on the ground, the real magic happens when you get down on your belly and really exaggerate the angle. I never wear a skirt if I’m out shooting because I know I’m guaranteed to be lying on the ground at some point 🙂

One more shot with the low angle… in this one I shifted the camera down as low as possible to get the bright colors in the foreground. Still in the same location, so much more interesting!

See what a little shift in your point of view can do? 🙂

Quick Tip of the Day : windows are your friend!

I know a few of you have left me feedback saying that the posts are great and informative, but a little bit overwhelming. I am trying to make sure I cover the basics, but I don’t want to bombard you with EVERYTHING you need to know all at once. That’s why I’ve decided to break it up a bit and save the super long posts for another day. Today will just be the first of many “quick tips” for when you don’t have time to really dive into the details of how your camera works.

Today’s quick tip is on window lighting. Unless you live in a house without windows (and I don’t believe you do) there is at least one great spot in your home to take pictures of your kids. What you want is a window that lets in lots of great bright light, but that hopefully doesn’t have direct sunlight pouring through it. Direct light can be a little bit harsh and hard to work with. What we’re looking for right now is a window that “glows”. If you have a porch or overhang the window below it is probably a good bet. If there isn’t a couch or rug or even clear space in that room near to the window you might want to do a little rearranging so that there is 🙂

The idea is that directional light (from the side) is much more dynamic and interesting than light from straight on. Set your subject so that the light hits one side of their face and shoot away. It will bring out all of that cute baby chub and give your picture way more pop than if you had the light right in front of them. There are a million and one ways to use light and use it to your advantage. This is just one of the easiest. Go try it out at home!

This one was shot with my 85mm lens at f1.8 1/500th of a second.