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You Asked, and I Kind of Know What I’m Talking About April 29, 2009

Posted by Emily in : Photography, Princess Hannah, Thoughts , trackback

This post falls in the category of I-kind-of-know-what-I’m-talking-about.  Unlike beautifying my home, people actually ask me for photography tips.  Like I know what I’m doing . . .

Yes.  Stop snickering.  I don’t believe it myself.  I don’t really know what I’m doing when it comes to taking pictures.  I just learned how to get pictures off my SD card 18 months ago.  I didn’t know what an SLR was three years ago, and I’m pretty sure I’d never said the word aperture, or ISO in my life until last year.

Basically, I’m really new at this.  But I do love photography and I have learned a few tricks along the way.

Today, I thought I’d share some of my limited knowledge.

Anyone can take a snapshot.  They all look like this:

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Beautiful trail, darling subject, but it’s just so BLAH. Nothing catches your eye.  The most common way people photograph children is standing up looking down on them.  We see this angle of them all the time.

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This is the S.O.O.C. (straight out of the camera) picture.  This picture was taken right after the above photo.  I crouched down to Hannah’s level to capture her and not all of her surroundings.  You still get the idea that she’s walking on a trail or something, and enjoying her stick.  You don’t need to capture everything in the photo, (the trees, grass, trail, rocks, sky, you name it!) just the emotion of the subject.

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Now, every photographer uses Photoshop.  If they tell you otherwise, they are lying to you or high on drugs.  Every picture could use a little cropping and color enhancement.  I ran the Fresh and Colorful action from this set of FREE ACTIONS. You must have Photoshop CS2, CS3, CS4 to run these actions.  However, for a lot less money you can get Photoshop Elements which can do the same thing minus the actions.  You just have to do all the steps yourself.

There you have it!  I plan to post actual tutorials later this summer.  I’m taking my love of photography to a new level!  This summer I’ll be taking online photography classes from The Academy of Art University located in San Francisco.

I’ll be able to share what I’ve learned without feeling like an idiot who has no idea what I’m talking about.  Which is basically how I feel right now.

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Comments»

1. Kelley - April 29, 2009

Hmmm, now that you put it that way I CAN see what makes the difference. Thanks for putting it that way. Even with that little tip I’ll be able to take better pictures.

2. amber bechtold - April 29, 2009

I love it….once upon a time before Jonathan was so busy he did all the photoshop in our house. It really made a difference. :)

3. Kari Ann - April 29, 2009

I’ve always heard “get on their level.” It’s fun to see the difference.

4. Laura White - April 29, 2009

and… can you teach me how to use our camera!?!