I would love to be a good photographer, but I really suck. Having a digital is a godsend, since at least half the pics I take are useless, so I am not wasting nearly so much on film anymore, but I would LOVE some simple tips to keep in mind to have slightly closer to foolproof decent photos! Anybody have any to throw my way?? Pretty please??


TIA!

Murali

1-get closer to your subject (i mean really close...it's ok to take a shot of just the face, just the hands...)

2-use natural light (if you can take pictures by a window, outdoors, wherever there is natural light..they will look so much better....but..you need to turn off the flash)

3-turn your flash off (a flash is great when you need more light to take a picture...but it also washes out your subject most of the time...practice taking some pictures with your flash turned off...you will probably like them so much more)

On my site I have an illustrated tutorial for taking pictures newborn photos, but a lot of them apply to any kind of kid photography....

Purple Stork photo tips (http://www.purplestork.com/Photo-Tips.html)

I have a tip for taking pics in full/partial sun. Use "fill flash." It means to make the flash fire to avoid shadows on your subject(s). You have to experiment with distance, etc. to get it to be effective (with your on-camera flash) without washing them out.

Also, I am an aspiring professional photographer and definitely need to learn more about some areas, like lighting, flash, aperture, etc. I've been checking out every book my library system has on photography. Some are too basic or the info just seems like common sense to me, but I've still gleaned ideas/tips. Others are full of new info that I'm using. Some I like are Photography for Dummies, Digital Photography for Dummies, 100 Essential Photography Tips, Joy of Photography, More Joy of Photography, etc. Then you will find dozens of books in more specific areas like taking pics of kids, taking wedding pics, etc.

Wow, thanks for the tips...I forgot about this thread! I def need to practice, cause right now I am famous for my hopeless photography, lol!


Murali