Category Archives: Photography Tips

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Water Daily for Optimum Growth ~ Turn Down the Sharpening Photography Tip

April 17, 2008 – 1:46 pm

Yesterday was perfectly sunny and upper 60s.  Gorgeous!  Win helped me water our new arborvitaes.  He had a lot of fun with the hose.

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At times the hose would turn on him!

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After we finished watering the plants he began watering himself.  I guess that’s why he’s so tall!

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Photography tip:

I can still remember the first time that I saw a photograph from a digital camera.  The print was being passed around as everyone was exclaiming, “Look at that!  You can’t even tell that it’s digital.”  In order to be socially appropriate I agreed with something like, “Amazing!”  But inwardly I was thinking, “Something about that image looks really fake and flat.  I don’t think that I’ll ever buy a digital camera.”  hmm…

As you know, I did buy a digital camera, a pretty expensive one too.  I love digital photos, as do most professionals.  Now that I know why that image looked so fake and how to avoid it I LOVE the upsides of digital photography.

If you are having a problem with your images looking too “digitally” it’s ok, there is a solution.  And you probably won’t need to buy a new camera.   Digitally looking pictures are the result of over-sharpening.  Sharpening is something that most cameras do to images to give them a sharp, focuses look.  The problem is that when images are over-sharpened they start to look really fake.   Sharpening is a good thing, but like seasoning in cooking, you only want just the right amount.

Here are some samples.

Over-sharpened image:

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Properly sharpened image:

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Do you see the difference?  It’s subtle, but it’s the difference between realistic and fake.  If you can’t see the difference look at his eyelashes.  That’s where I see it most.

Most cameras allow you to adjust the level of sharpening that they do to your images.  If you are noticing this problem fuss around in the menu of your camera and look for anything that addresses sharpening.  Turn it down.  When in doubt less sharpening is better.  I have the sharpening turned all of the way off in my camera.

By Rachel Henderson | Also posted in Winfield | Comments (2)

Help! It’s winter and all that I have a is a point and shoot.

February 19, 2008 – 2:34 pm

On Sunday a friend and mother of 3 (due with her 4th today!) was telling me she has trouble being motivated to take pictures.  Discouraged by the lack of nice light indoors and the crummy quality of flashed pictures she was noticing that she wasn’t hardly taking any pictures at all.  Personally when I’m pregnant LOTS of things slide.  Do not look in my fridge of shower when I’m pregnant.  Sparkling isn’t a word that would be used to describe them.  Ok, I admit.  Don’t look in my fridge or shower right now if you are looking for anything that represents bling.

Back to photography.  Her comments inspired me to give a few winter tips.

1. First, get you camera out.  Have a place in your living room or kitchen that your camera lives.  Mine lives on a bookshelf.  Also, always store your camera with an memory card in it.  It’s much easier to take pictures if your camera is out and loaded.  Digging through a drawer, taking it out of a case and then looking for the memory card, which is undoubtedly somewhere near the computer, all add just enough steps that pictures don’t get taken.

2. Go outside.  All of the white snow and the overcast skies make great photography conditions.

3. Since it’s currently 16 degrees and the above mentioned technique isn’t the most kind, use windows.  Open those shades, rearrange your living room, do what ever it takes to have lots of nice window light flooding in.  It’ll feel good even when you don’t have your camera out.   Arrange your toy area near big windows.  Your kids will easily gravitate toward the well lit areas and it will be more natural to grab the camera and get some nice images.  When using window light it’s important to have you back or shoulder to the window (you don’t want to see the window in the picture) but make sure not to cast a shadow on your kids.  Overcast days are the easiest.  If the sun is out, make sure to avoid those spots where the sun makes a square on the floor.  That’s called direct light and it’s too hard.  You are looking for soft indirect light.  I’d create some examples but the sun isn’t out today and it might be March before we see it again (Welcome to Michigan!  The land of indirect light).

4. All of the above is well and good but sometimes your kid does something really cute away from a window, or at 4:30 when it is already dark out, etc…  In those moments using your flash is the only option.  The best way to use your flash is to step away from your kid and zoom in real close.  Get close by getting far.  The light from the flash will look much better and the effect of focal length (zoom) will be much nicer.  See this post about focal length for an explanation of this.

These images are straight out of my point and shoot, using a flash in a dark corner of our kitchen–bad camera, bad conditions, no adjustments.

In this picture my feet were close to Win and my camera was zoomed short.  I used the flash on my point and shoot.  Do you see how his hand looks like a glowing torch at the end of a 12 foot arm?

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In this picture my feet were further away but I used the camera to zoom long across the room.  His face is the same size as the picture above.  Do you see how his hand and his face are lit much more evenly?  His arm looks much more proportional too.
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Store your camera in plain view.  Go outside or use windows.  If you can’t, then stand back, zoom close and turn on that flash.  Life doesn’t always happen near a window.

By Rachel Henderson | Also posted in Winfield | Comments (1)

Zoom: It’s about more than getting closer.

December 11, 2007 – 4:43 pm

These pictures of my niece, Jordan, are a great example of a photography tip that I’ve wanted to post.  It’s an important concept in photography that most people are not aware of.  It’s the idea that zoom has more to do with composition than it does with where the photographers feet are.

Most people associate focal length (a.k.a zoom) with how close they have to be to their subject to get a decent shot.  Although that is one function of focal length, I wouldn’t say that it isn’t the most important to me.  I use focal length to set the mode of the image more than I ever use it to make my subject bigger.  I’ll explain.

There are 2 directions that you can go with your camera.  You can zoom wide or far.  I’ll use these terms because they are less confusing that “in ” and “out.”  Wide shots are easy to conceptualize.  Most people know what an image from a fish eye lens looks like or the look of someone’s face through a spyhole in a door.  Those are extreme examples of wide images.  Wide shots include larger sections of the room that you are photographing.  Wide shots also make items in the room look farther away from each other than they truly are.  The “OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR” warning is an example of this.  Think about looking through a spyhole in a door.  Doesn’t their nose look really big and close and their feet about a mile away.  That’s the distortion of a wide focal length.

Far is the other option.  That is a little more difficult to describe.  It is best to think of it as the opposite of a wide angle.  Zooming far makes the objects in the image look flat and closer together.  All focal lengths have their place in creative photography, but my suggestion is that most non-professionals could benefit from zooming far more.  Instead of just picking up the camera and taking a picture, try picking up the camera, zooming it as far as it can go and then taking the picture.  In other words, step back with your feet and get closer with your camera.

Here are 2 images that I took over Thanksgiving.  I took the first image f Jordan but I didn’t like it; the background was too cluttery.  So I stood up, walked about 10 steps farther from Jordan and zoomed farther with my camera.  Jordan stayed roughly the same size, but the tree behind her appeared to have gotten a lot closer to her.  You too can move large trees in 10 easy steps! 

Look what happens to the tree behind Jordan.  

In summary, wide images tend to feel less focused and can easily be busy.  Far images tend to isolate the subject more and make faces look more pleasing.  If you want to understand this more try this.

Find a doll or a very still model.  Kids are too wiggly.  You are going to take 2 pictures of the doll.  First zoom your camera as wide as it can go.  For the first picture put the dolls nose in the middle of the picture and fill most of the picture with it’s face.  For the second image zoom your camera as far as it can go.  Again put the dolls nose in the middle of the picture and walk away from the doll until it’s face is roughly the same size as it was in the first picture.  Try it.  You’ll easily see the effects of focal length on a face.

By Rachel Henderson | Also posted in Henderson Family | Comments (5)

Photography Tip: inspired by a walk down eBay Lane

December 2, 2007 – 9:16 am

I was on eBay a couple of weeks ago and I saw this. My heart leapt with childhood delight at the memories of playing with this lovely toy. Oh, the pure pleasure of putting a car into an elevator, turning a crank and listening for the clanging of the little bell as the car reached the top and was released down the slide. I remember wondering why my parents never brought us to a parking garage. I wanted to be in a car that rode in elevators and went down slides.I put this toy on my eBay watch list. As I watched it get bid over $180 dollars I realized that there are many other people (28 year old parents I presume) who share similar memories. It also reminded me of this post that I read on a blog about a year ago.Here’s the idea, it’s easy to take pictures of our kids, but sometimes memories aren’t only in our kids faces. Try taking pictures of the things that represent our kids in the stage that they are in right now. Like the Fisher-Price Action Garage, memories can be caught up in the things that our kids play with and tools that they use. Have you ever looked through old pictures with your siblings. Sometimes it’s the clothes, toys, furniture and other details that bring the most comments.I took about 5 minutes and shot some pictures of things that represent our life right now.These are Win’s shoes. He LOVES his shoes. I think he loves them so much because they mean that he gets to go outside or in the car.This sight is very much a part of my life right now.This little stool was painted by a friend of Jared’s family before Win was born. The racing bear is in honor of Win’s first marathon which he completed 4 months before he was born (shameless bragging here). I wanted to take a picture of this stool, but more importantly I wanted to take a picture of the scratches on top. Nearly every day Win turns this stool upside down and “drives” it around the house. It’s a part of his life that I don’t want to forget.

By Rachel Henderson | Also posted in Winfield | Comments (5)

Before thinking about a new camera

October 26, 2007 – 4:54 pm

There’s a bumper sticker that says it all: Cameras don’t shoot people, I shoot people.(or something like that)Basically, good pictures are primarily in the photographer, not the camera. Good equipment sure makes a difference, but there are many simple tips and tricks that are even more important than the camera.If you are looking for better photographs put this on your Christmas list.MeRa Koh, an amazing photographer in Seattle, created this DVD for moms. Check it out. Even if you are still going to get a new camera add this to your basket. It’s well worth the $30, which is much cheaper than a new camera.Click here for the DVD. 

By Rachel Henderson | Comments (2)

New camera for Christmas?

October 24, 2007 – 12:34 pm

I came across the specifications for this camera and I thought that it was blog-worthy, especially this close to Christmas. Sony’s Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W80 is a fantastic little camera. It’s really small, has a large screen and image stabilization, and it has remarkably low shutter lag. It’s priced at just a little over $200 and it even comes in pink :-) Most people that I talk to are frustrated with their cameras because of long shutter lag. Shutter lag is that obnoxious time between when you press the button and when the camera takes the picture. It’s usually enough time for someone to step between your subject and the camera or for your kid to run away, leaving you with an image of someones backside or an empty scene.Shutter lag is caused by the camera’s need to auto focus. Every camera, no matter how nice, will have shutter lag–especially in dimly lit situations. A good rule of thumb for photography is to try to take pictures in situations with plenty of light. Try turning on lights, moving closer to a window, or doing an activity outside. Anything that allows more light will help. If you are going to do a project with your kids, and you know that you want to take pictures, look for good light. Truthfully, it isn’t often possible to change these things or to plan ahead, but when you can ading more light will make picture taking less frustrating.If you are looking for a new camera give this one serious consideration.

By Rachel Henderson | Comments (3)