Photography Goodies

Taking pictures of your friends and family is lots of fun-but sometimes the results aren't entirely what you had in mind or just don't seem flattering. In this book, you'll learn to take your people pictures to the next level, crafting images that look much more polished and professional-photos that can truly be called "portraits" and not just snapshots. With these quick, two-page lessons illustrated by simple images from the pros, you'll learn how to avoid common problems with posing, lighting, and background selection. You'll be amazed at the improvement in your images-and so will your friends and family!

Small Aperture? What kind of a silly name is that? Well, when you take photos with a small aperture, you get a greater depth of field, so you get a feel for what's going on in the background. That's what this site is about: a slightly deeper, more overall approach to photography - and all the fun things that comes with it. And besides, we rather like the name.

Controlling the sun in a back lit portrait is the focus of this lesson. There are several ways to solve this lighting dilemma; the most common and easiest is the flash fill setting on your camera. Most modern digital cameras have a auto "flash fill" setting that gives adequate results when you apply them to a back lit outdoor portrait.

If you admire food photography but have always been intimidated to shoot it, here is a bit of advice. Approach food as you would any other still life. Don't automatically psyche yourself out before you begin. People often remark that food is the most difficult subject to shoot. Perhaps once upon a time, but today digital SLR's have completely altered the landscape.

There are a plethora of ways to treat a portrait for a myriad of uses, but that is for another feature. Let's tackle adding drama or a cinematic quality to a regular, humdrum portrait. Let's even throw in a little bit of faking HDR. That way if you work on a project that requires a stunning shot without the stunning photography, you'll be able to cobble something together using your mad skillz!

Everyone is different with respect to the gear they choose to take a given assignment. But a news photographer typically carries two digital bodies, one with a fast wide zoom and another with a fast tele zoom. A Nikon user might have two Nikon D2h's, a 17-35/2.8 and an 80-200/2.8. This gear covers wide to telephoto with the ability to shoot wide open at f/2.8 throughout the range.

My gears I bought an entry-level Canon EOS/88 SLR camera and before long I discovered that my needs have outgrown this faithful camera. After much research and with due consideration of my budget, I finally upgraded my gears to Canon EOS/1V plus a few more lenses and accessories.