Top Ten Together!

This is my final top ten pictures project collage!
It's a combination of my favorite picture from each tip into one.

Tip 10: Lock the Focus.

The tenth and final Kodak tip is locking your focus. Locking the focus on an off-centered subject makes for a clearer photo and a better overall picture. This is done normally on the nicer cameras as you hold down your capture button halfway and let the camera auto focus your subject. This is probably one of my favorite techniques as it makes for really artsy and cool photos.

Tip 9: Watch The Light.

Since we did the earlier tip of know your flash range, Mrs. Hartman didn't make us take pictures for this tip. However, great light makes for great pictures. It is important to study the effects of light in your pictures. For people pictures, you should choose the soft lighting of cloudy days. Avoid over head sunlight because it can cast shadows across people's faces. For scenic pictures, use the long shadows and color of early and late daylight.

Tip 8: Know Your Flash Range.

 When trying to be a great photographer, it is important to know your flash range, especially under dark light settings. Meredith was a prime example of this as she proved my flash range to be about ten feet. notice how well the picture turns out when she is right up next to me compared to when I had her move back about ten feet. Thanks Mer!

Tip 7: Move it from the Middle.

The common beginner rule is the rule of thirds. This means placing the subject of your photo to the side instead of placing them in the center as this is too common and makes for boring pictures. I used Lauren as my model and captured her laughing at a passing friend in the hall. Purposefully placing Lauren on the side she is looking away from, putting the blank space in front of her vision direction, makes for a really pretty, unusual portrait of her.

Tip 6: Be A Director.

 A good deal of photography is posed, especially at my age. Today we learned our sixth Kodak tip to direct the subjects of your photos. If your ever in a party atmosphere again with a lot of people asking to take their picture, it's important to get creative. Having the same line of girls smiling at the camera at the same focus and zoom can get really old really quick. Try to pose subjects in a cute, creative fashion to make for a more interesting photo.

Tip 5: Use Flash Outdoors.

     

Normally a photographer would never think to use a flash outside in the bright sun, but it can be really useful in the case of shadowing. Sometimes, when it is too sunny outside, shadows can form across people's faces making the subject's expressions hard to identify. I took my friend Lauren to pose as my subject and showed the effects of shadowing on a face corrected by use of flash photography.

Tip 4: Make It Vertical.

An extremely helpful tip that not all photographers think about is the ability to take a vertical picture over the very common horizontal view. The use of a vertical can capture a lot more about a photo that can really boost the overall affect. The picture of my duckling in the pond was much better when taken vertically than horizontal. The background of the rocks and waterfall contributes to the nature setting of the photo.

Tip 3: Fill the Frame.

The third Kodak tip is the "fill the frame" effect. It is important to get close up to the subject to capture the complete essence of the object. In the picture of my chicken, the fill the frame usage allows you to see all the tiny details of the animal itself.

Tip 2: Get the Best Background.

The second tip learned was smart use of background. My first example was a picture of a flower in my pond where the water background served as a glassy, plain but elegant backdrop that made the vibrance of the flower pop. The yellow flowers had a good background in the second picture because it showed the large quantity of flowers in the back but blurred them out at the same time as to not produce a distraction. The final picture is Jenny as a tree serves as her background. This is normally a very tricky background to master but as I made sure there was no distracting object in the back and the lighting was very good in these conditions. Using a more simple background allows the subject of the picture to be much more defined and clear to the viewers of my photos.

Tip 1: Be On Their Eye Level.

The following pictures fall under my first tip of the project: eye level. The trick to to get on the level of whatever subject you are photographing. Wether it is higher or lower than you, the photographer must position themselves at the same level as the object it is photographing to make for much better pictures. 

 The pictures of the wooden logs and grass are much more effective at eye level so you can see the reality of each photo. The wood at eye level shows how much is actually present as opposed to taking these pictures from the top, where the subject would be much more boring from just the top of the logs. The grass is more effective from ground level as the picture shows the background, size of the grass, location of the picture, and distance away from the house the picture is being taken.

The picture I captured of the chicken is also really special because it shows all the details of the hen's physical features. If this picture had been taken at my height, the colors of the chicken and the detailing in her eye and feathers would not be present. Capturing a photo at eye level shows the subject for what it actually is. Eye level gives the picture the point of view aspect from the photographed subject.

Tipping In A Better Direction

Our newest assignment in my photojournalism class is following Kodak's "Top Ten Tips" article. We will discuss two or three techniques in class and will then be sent off on a photo walk to put these tips in action! Once we have collected 5 good examples of each tip and 2 bad examples, we proceed to upload these to the computer and adjust the size and lightings with Adobe Photoshop. I'll be posting by pictures for each technique in hopes that these ten tips will boost my photography skills.