Tips on Photographing Expressive Children Part 2

Tips on Photographing Expressive Children Part 2 - Mood that emanated from children face or their body language will make parents spellbound. Children expression is a miracle. They seemed to have their own world that can not be penetrated by an adult. The world is what makes it so special, there can be no compulsion for them, there was just a close approach to the world the way they are.

The approach should approach their world and for that reason, their photograph has its own challenges. Here are tips and tricks for photographing children as a continuation of the first part:

Waiting Patiently for the Right Moment
Children are usually active and are not always willing to listen to instruction, so that they seemed to be the boss for a photo shoot. Talk to them, build a relationship with them in a short time, so that they feel comfortable with your presence. Watch them and you should be ready with your camera for a good moment to be photographed, for it requires patience in order to get a good and interesting moments to be photographed, do not do it in a hurry because it will produce a mediocre. But also do not hesitate to shoot as much as possible at the right moment.

Photograph Children When They're Playing with Toys
Children usually very close to their toys, especially their favorite toys. Featured is their time playing with toys and looking for moments that show interest in the relationship between them and the toys. If you want, you can focus on their hand while playing with their toys without taking their face.

Note the Background and Foreground
Unless there is a specific purpose, avoid shooting in the neighborhood with the foreground and background is cluttered and unwanted. Avoid something vertical behind them that will look like as if it comes from their head. The main object that you notice is the children, remove unwanted objects to emphasize the object.

Look at the Color
If you know the place you're going, plan carefully by choosing a good combination of colors between the children's clothes and background / surroundings. Avoid wearing the same colors / similar to the environment, because it will make children less prominent in the photos.

Do A Photo Shoot in the Morning or Afternoon
When shooting outdoors, should be done in early morning or late afternoon when the sunlight angle is low and the quality of light is better and softer. If you do not have a choice but to shoot at a high angle of the sunlight at noon, try to find a shady spot under a tree or where the sunlight is blocked by tall buildings.

Use Windows or Curtains to Reduce Light
When shooting indoors, try to position the child at the window with his face to the window or one side of his face illuminated by the light from the window. If you have a thin white curtain, use blinds to diffuse light and create a soft lighting if necessary.

Focus on Their Eyes
The most beautiful part of the children are the eyes, for that try to do a photo shoot with a focus on their eyes when you shoot at an angle to the face.

Look for Expression, Emotion and Relationships

Capturing children's expressions, emotions and their relationships with parents or friends will help make a better photo and story telling. So look funny faces, laughter, laughter and even tears.

Rule of Third

Photo source: http://erincobb.com/

Try to be creative with the composition. If you're a regular photographing children by placing them in the center of the photo, try a different approach now. Put their position by following the Rule of Third (their position at the intersection of the line if the area of the photo is divided into 9 equal parts).

Align the Position Camera With Their Eyes
Photographing children from a high angle perspective creates unpleasant. Bring your camera position their eyes in a way parallel squat or lie down.

Lets try these tips!

Tips on Photographing Expressive Children Part 1

Tips on Photographing Expressive Children Part 1 - Children with all their activities are attractions to be photographed. Expression of natural and funny and adorable doings are their main attraction. But making all the charms that you want can be seen in the photo is the challenge. Candid style photographs and photo studio if executed properly would be an interesting photo. Shooting with objects children can be difficult because the child can not "lie". So shooting with objects children require not only proper technique, but also the ability to understand their condition.
 

Here are some tips that will help you capture their expressions they are cute and innocent:

Mood. It must be ensured that the child was in a good mood, not being sad or upset. Most people would rather see a child in a state of excited with a bright smile. If the child's mood is not good, let his condition improved before starting shooting.

Let Them in Action Spontaneous. Today we are directing that the children pose in a certain style, they will begin to lose the spontaneity and confidence. So let them stylish and spontaneous expression. The most powerful way is to invite them to play-a-boo, or if they are too big to play boo, invite them to chat. Ask the name, the name of the mother / father of her, ask her school etc, then let the conversation flow ... and .. snap ... snap!

Align the camera with their eyes. If you want their body looks proportional (the head no bigger than the body), you should squat or lie down, because their bodies are naturally much shorter than us. Unless you want a certain effect and angle. Shooting at their eyes level position (normal angle) can make photos more interesting.

Mode 'sport' or 'continuous'. In anticipation of the children who tend to move on, the choice is to use a high shutter speed (mode S with a minimum speed of 1/250 on a DSLR or prosumer) or use the 'sport' mode on the pocket camera. And use 'continuous' mode to get more choice photos. If using a DSLR camera, using a lens with a wide aperture will be very beneficial.
 

Benefit Tools. Not all kids like stylish and graceful pose, especially if you know they're in the picture. If the child seems awkward, embarrassed or too stiff, you should use the tools available. Toys are the most powerful tools, if they like to play dolls give the doll. If they like to play toy cars, toy cars provide. If the toy is not available, you can use a chair, a book or even a pen. So that they will forget that they are the object image and begin to express themselves spontaneously.

Do not Force Them Smile. Forced they say "cheeerssss...", Then you will get a forced smile, lips drawn stiff. Nice pose is not having to always smile and there are some children who are faced serious.

Sufficient light. Light is the main capital shooting. If there is not sufficient lighting, try to get enough light to shoot outdoors.

Photograph as much as possible.

To be continued...

DSLR Lens Buying Guide - Part 2

DSLR Lens Buying Guide Part 2 is the next clues before you buy dslr lenses. Unlike if you have a pocket or a prosumer camera, where the lens can not be changed, the owner of DSLR camera lens requires precision in choosing to be purchased, as each type of lenses designed specifically for a particular shoot. But DSLR camera manufacturers anticipate the needs scene by attaching the kit lens that is a lens vario, which is designed to meet the initial needs of the buyer or user to a certain extent because the lens kit is economical to reduce the price of DSLR camera package offered to the market.

After a lot of shooting with the default kit lens camera the photographer will definitely feel the lack of such a kit lens, so that he would decide to buy a new and better lenses. The question is "what kind of lens you should buy?" For photographing macro would be better results if you use a macro lens, photographing landscape will be better results if you use a wide-angle with fixed-aperture. Similarly, macro photograph will not be good results if you use a wide angle lens.

To be emphasized here is no need to buy all types of lenses. Select the lens that best suits your photography needs the most preferred and most frequently performed.

To be able to decide what type of lens to buy, do some research as follows:

1. Take photos with the kit lens as often as possible with good planning.
2. Periodically, inventorying your photo collection and create a classification that found photography categories most frequently performed.
3. Detailed diagnostic photographs of most categories and determine the necessary repairs of the lens, for example:

• less sharp focus
• less blur bokeh
• less precise tonal
• less rapid response, etc..

Job demands

An understanding of this photo category, allowing us to determine the criteria of the lens that we need, for example:

• Paparazzi and sports journalists often take photos from a distance and speed of response necessary in order not to miss the moment, so need a telephoto lens with a focal distance (over 200 mm) equipped with an image stabilizer and ultrasonic motors.

• Photo studio with lighting products in a limited, need a lens with a shorter focal length (between 18 and 50 mm), can shoot from close range (macro) and wide aperture.

• Photo stage / show requires a lens capable of shooting in low-light conditions (wide aperture / fast lens), fast response (ultrasonic motor or the like), and long focus (200 mm or more).

• For photojournalism, travel, human interest, what is needed is flexibility and foresight to capture the moment. Vario lens with wide range and light weight is the best suited to meet these needs, e.g. 18-135 mm or 18-200 mm.

After knowing the criteria lenses we need, then we can look for a lens that suits needs and budget.

How To Avoid Blurred Photos

How to avoid blur in photos - After my post Tips for Sharp Picture and Some Causes of Blur Photos in previous posts, the following is my post how to avoid a blurred picture. These posts are very related.

There are two main factors causing blurry photo:

1. The shutter speed setting is too slow compared to the focal length

Generally to avoid blurred photos due to hand shake you should use the Shutter Speed reference:

Shutter speed = 1 / focal length

For example, if you use lens with 100mm focal length, your camera shutter speed should be set at 1/100 second or faster.
This reference available to DSLR with full frame sensor. If your camera has cropped sensor (APSC), such as cropped Canon camera uses factor 1.6x, Nikon Sony, and Pentax use factor 1.5x, Olympus and Panasonic use factor 2x.
So if you have Canon DSLR camera with cropped sensor and use 100mm lens, the save minimum shutter speed from blurred due to hand shake is 1/160 second.
The question is "Why longer focal length need faster shutter speed?" Because the longer focal length, the more sensitive sensor to capture the vibe.

2. The object you are photographing moved too fast

So that the shutter speed must also follow the rapid motion of the subject of the photo. For example, to freeze the motion of the person running a basketball player, you need a minimum of 1/500. For dancers and singers, usually 1/200 enough, and to photograph people who do not move 1/60 is usually pretty good.

How to prevent blur

There is technology in cameras and lenses designed to prevent blur. This type of technology is divided into two categories. The first one is in the camera, in the lens the other. The name varies, among other Image Stabilization (IS), Vibration Reduction (VR), Steady Shot (SS), Shake Reduction (SR) Mega OIS, Optical Stabilization (OS) and Vibration Compensation (VC). This technology can help you but can not help in total. For example, once you have to use a 1/200, but with the help of technology, you can use 1/100 or 1/60. This technology can not prevent blur when you are taking photos of people or objects moving quickly.

Another thing that can be used to prevent blur, among others, the camera holding technique and breathing techniques. By holding your breath while taking a picture, and put the body by meeting or leaning on walls, can help reduce the vibration that produces blur.

In addition to those mentioned above, there are still other factors that affect, among other things:

1. Direction of motion of moving subjects: Subjects were moving toward and away from the camera will be easier to freeze than the subject moves from left to right or vice versa.

2. The distance between the camera with a moving subject: The farther the distance, the more easily freeze the subject rather than a subject that is close.

In practice, we often can not use a high shutter speed to freeze the subject of the picture due to dark field conditions. Thus, by using these principles is our advantage.

If we are photographing people or objects approaching us from the front, then we can use the shutter speed a bit more slowly, so photographing subjects that are far from us. But be careful if your subject is near to us or movement from left to right / right to left camera, we need to increase the aperture / shutter speed if you want to freeze the subject movement.

DSLR Lens Buying Guide - Part 1

DSLR lens buying guide part 1 - is the answer the question "Which lens should I buy?" after we know the types of DSLR lenses. This post will discuss some of the factors into consideration when buying a DSLR Lenses. Each of the features below will be different in each lens.
 

Lens Speed

Lens Speed or how fast a lens is actually closely related to the maximum aperture is owned by the lens. Aperture is the size of the lens opening when the shutter button is pressed (or how much light enters the camera). Aperture is denoted by F (f-stop).

The smaller number makes wider aperture, and there will be more light coming in at one time. This means the shutter speed becomes faster. Lens speed should you know due to:

• Lens "fast" with a maximum aperture of f/1.4 allows you to shoot in relatively dark place better than the lens has a maximum aperture of f / 4 or f/5.6, but that does not mean a slower lens is not good.

• The "fast" lens allows you to retrieve the moving object without getting motion blur.

• Lens "fast" allows you to get the depth of field of thinner / narrower. This means that when you focus on a subject in the foreground the background will be blurry or out of focus. Having a lens 'fast' of course means it is possible to get focusing a little more 'tricky', given the depth of field is used very thin / narrow. For example, when photographing portrait of a face with f/1.4 aperture and focus on the eyes, then most likely you will find the nose a little out of focus.

• The 'fast' lens is usually more expensive than a slower lens.

• The faster lenses would be helpful in terms of flash photography in recording or taking ambient light.

As a reference:

• Lens speed aperture lens with f / 4 is usually good for general purpose photography with good lighting conditions
• f/5.6 requires good lighting or features image stabilization (IS / VR)
• If you shoot indoor without flash, then at least use a lens with f/2.8, and
• If you are shooting indoor sports then at least use f/2.0 or 'faster'.

Focal Length

Focal length is length of the lens. This measurement is the distance between the middle of the optical lens to the focal point on the camera sensor. What you should know is that the focal length of a lens inform you when photographing subjects how much will be enlarged. Focal Length also inform the angle of view.

Focus Distance
This is the measurement between the end of the lens with the closest point of object. This is useful when shooting in macro or close-up photography, because this type of photography requires a very close distance of the object to end of the lens.

Image Stabilization

This feature is useful for minimizing vibration or shaking the camera (Camera Shake). Most DSLR lenses is now equipped with image stabilization (the Canon lens known as IS, and the Nikon lens is known as VR).

Camera Shake is a movement that occurs when the shutter is opened. This incident had a greater impact on the photos when we use slow speed, no tripod, and when use a lens with a longer focal length.

Image Stabilization helps photographers reduce camera shake at low light levels, but it does not freeze the moving subject. Basically IS allows us to take photos at lower shutter speed which the camera aperture open a little longer.

IS features mean additional cost on a lens, so you need a consideration of whether the activity of shooting with lenses that require this feature or not. Example: Do you frequently shoot in low light conditions using a long focal length without a tripod?

Budget

Considerations in buying lenses when going to upgrade is the cost. Most people agree that "we get what we pay", and we prefer to upgrade the lens than replace the camera body (depending on conditions). A little wary of the 'kit lens', in many circumstances these lenses are good, but we think it would be better if we buy only the camera body and then choose a better lens than the kit.

Brand

There are so many opinions say that to produce great photos should use a lens with the same brand with the camera compared to using cheaper third party lenses. In our opinion, for the first time try to find the same brand lens with the camera body, if you can not find try to find the lens of a third party. The fact is that every lens manufacturer has produced good and less good lenses that have been circulating in the market. Do your research before buying a lens through websites and forums that provide a review and comparison.

To be continued...here

Some Causes of Blur Photos

Some Causes Blur Photos - This post is a continuation of the post Tips for Sharp Picture. In this post I will emphasize the causes blurry photo.

Here are some of the causes:

Sensor size - Camera sensor size varies, the larger, more easily create a blurry background. Camera phones or compact cameras have a sensor size is relatively small compared with the digital SLR camera. In the digital SLR camera, subdivided some kind of sensor size.
The smallest to the largest are: Four thirds (ratio of 4 by 3), there is a crop sensor 1.6 (Canon), 1.5 (Nikon, Pentax, Sony), there is also a full frame (Nikon, Sony) and medium format (phase One, Leica S2, Pentax 645D).

Aperture - By using a large aperture lens (f/2.8 or larger such as f/1.4), then the background becomes more blurred.

No focus - This may be a result of the focus on the wrong part of the object, too close to the object so that the focus can not be obtained, the error selecting aperture that produces a very narrow depth of photo (smaller f number, e.g. f/2) or take photos too quickly without check first in the viewfinder.

The ratio of the distance between the subject of the picture with the camera and the distance between the subject with the background - The closer the camera is to the subject of the picture and the farther your subject with the background, the picture becomes more blurred.
Example: When the camera is on your subject distance of 10cm, and the distance of the subject of the image to the background of 20m, it can certainly be very blurred background. This is because the distance ratio of camera to subject and subject to background is very large.
Conversely if the distance of the camera to the subject of the picture 20m, and the distance to the subject of the photo background 10cm, it can certainly be a very clear background / sharp.

Lens focal length - The larger the lens focal length is used, then the background becomes more blurred. Example: Background photo taken with a 55mm lens focal length more blurred than when taken with a 18mm lens focal length.

Moving objects - is another form of photo blur due to take a moving object by using a slow shutter speed.

Camera shake - shake the camera is usually derived from the movement of the photographers themselves while taking pictures to produce photo blur.

Noise - The photos were found spots of the image pixels, usually derived from errors in setting the ISO, the more ISO noise level is also growing.

And here are additional tips to get sharp photos:

1. Hold the camera correctly when shooting
The best way to overcome camera shake when shooting is to use a tripod but it is not practical to carry because of its size that takes place. The practical way is to hold the camera properly.

2. Use the camera and lens that have Image Stabilization feature
Many cameras and lenses currently equipped with Image Stabilization (IS), which helps reduce the effects of camera shake when shooting so that the resulting images could be sharper. But keep in mind that IS only helps stabilize the camera movement is not stabilizing the movement of objects.

3. Use a good lens
If you have a higher budget then buy a better lens to get a sharper image quality than always using a standard lens. For Canon lenses, better quality for L-series lenses (professional series lenses).

4. Clean the camera equipment regularly
Each finished using the camera moreover used outdoors, do not forget to clean appliances such as camera lenses and camera sensor from stains, dust and dirt as it will affect the images (cause spotting on the photo).

The conclusion of this post is how to make the background out of focus photo becomes very blurry or bokeh?

The answer is:

• Use wide aperture lens
• Use longer focal length
• Note the distance ration between camera, subject and background
• Use camera with big sensor size.

Pocket or DSLR?

Pocket or DSLR - There are two major groups of different types of digital cameras: Pocket and DSLR.

1. Compact camera (commonly called pocket camera), is a compact system and has integrated, has a whole section full of a digital camera.
2. DSLR camera, is a camera system that consists of two major subsystems, namely:

• mechanical-electronic subsystems (body), and
• mechanical-optical subsystem (lens)

Main Difference

The most obvious difference between the two categories is the ability of DSLR camera to replace the lens that will be used in accordance with the needs of photographers. In addition the issue of this lens, there are significant differences, but not visible, the difference in sensor size:

• Compact digital cameras usually have a smaller sensor size 1/2.5 inch to 1/1.6 inches.

• DSLR cameras have the larger sensor size, which is 22.2 x 14.8 mm (APS-C) or 35x24 mm (full frame).

• The development of sensor technology enables Olympus to develop smaller size (4/3 inch) than the APS-C DSLR cameras for her which was followed by Panasonic cameras with micro-4/3.

The difference in sensor size has an impact on the ability of a camera captures the light. The most obvious differences in results due to the influence of the size of the sensor can be seen from the level of noise in the photos using a high ISO (> ISO 200). The camera with a small sensor size would produce more noise at high ISO.

Though somehow, there are still advantages of pocket camera with small sensor, namely:

• Its compact size
• Light weight
• ease of use
• A more affordable price

What about picture quality and sharpness?

Apparently, the shooting conditions in the outdoor and sunny weather, it is almost impossible to distinguish the results from a compact camera or DSLR. More surprising yet, the images that we see on camera affected barely used. Ken Rockwell article below can serve as a reference:Your Camera Doesn't Matter and A $25 vs. a $5,000 Camera

In fact, production and market demand for compact camera / pocket remains larger than a DSLR camera.