Digital Photo Tips

I think I sucks in every aspect of photography. I still have problems grappling with the manual settings of my DSLR. I always failed to be prepared.

I was at my nephew’s wedding and I didn’t know what to expect from a church wedding. I wasn’t ready when the bride march in with her father. So, by the time I turn on my camera and ready to aim, she was already way past where I stood.

So, all I got was her back.

However, I know I am rather good with framing because I normally pay careful attention to what I capture in that little view finder.

Since it was a church wedding, the cross features as the main subject. I tried to get the cross in most of my photo and when I compared the photos taken by me and the others, ya, mine looks better.

For this photo, I cropped off all the chaos at the background like the drums, organ and other musical instruments. Then, I give the photo some soft edges.

So, overall I am quite satisfied with the photos I took as I was standing at quite a distance away. I refused to go near the couple eventhough others urged me to do so. Why? Because I do not want to irk the MIL. I heard they have spent over SGD4K to hire professional photographer so I better stay away.

The above photos were taken with Nikon D40 and Nikon VR 18-200mm zoom lens.

(My future footballer)

Put a bunch of kids below 7 years old, a pile of balloon and a huge empty space like a stage and you can have so much fun capturing their excitement. However, I do not like the idea of people taking photos of children unless he or she is part of the parents from the group. Otherwise, I feel it is an invasion of privacy.

It is almost impossible to take any decent photos under normal, warm lighting because the kids move so fast and the slow shutter speed caused all the photos to be blur. In the end, I have to use the flash.

My point and shoot camera has a mode for taking kids photos which uses faster shutter speed to avoid motion blur. But if the place is dark, it is not possible to use. So, what I do is to place the camera, either a point and shoot camera or my DSLR on a stable place and keep shooting, with the hope of getting a few nice ones out of many.

I helped my son to take photos in the church yesterday. He was capturing a video while I used the Nikon D40 to do it. It is challenging to take the pictures because as you know, some of the church goers have that solemn, sombre and uptight looks on their faces. Therefore, running around to get a good angle is not an option.

However, I want to get the most vibrant pictures of the youth dancers. I do not want to use my flash as it spoils the mood of the warm and embracing moment at the altar. So, I took over 130 shots and get only about 80 photos. There isn’t place for me to stand and squatting or sitting down is not an option as I was wearing skirt.

The next time, if given the opportunity, I will make sure that I wear a jean and I will forget about the ‘oh, what will they think of me’ hang-ups. These girls have practised for months for this celebration and I must make sure that they have their best shots.

The other thing to remember is to attend their rehearsal so that I know in advance where they are coming out from and which is the highlight of the performance.

Overall, it is a beautiful performance by the Youth Group of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit. They dance to the World Youth Day 2008 theme song. The World Youth Day 2008 will be held in Sydney, Australia in August.

Another photo adventure that I enjoyed tremendously.

My hubby handles the camera better than me. Men being men, they seem to have better affinity with all the dials, knobs and numbers. However, I notice something that I am better. I can see which angles look nicer and usually whatever is in the frame are what I want to see in the picture.

Meanwhile, hubby may be able to adjust the right aperture and etc but I normally need to crop some of his photos because there are just too many distractions on the sides. For example, if he is taking a photo of a flower, he probably gets some stray, dead leaves to spoil it.

I suppose it is our women’s fussy eye for perfection that makes us see all these details on the viewfinder.

Of all the family photos I took, I think I love those that I captured when my husband or children were not aware. I dislike gettings kids to pose for photos because it makes them so unnatural. You can see their forced smile, the tense fingers and the straighten arms. Yet, many parents are still doing that. Those parents’ blogs are usually filled with their children standing in front of monuments, flowers, mascots in those pose. That is so yesterday.

I like photos that says something. I do not care if I don’t see the faces. I only capture faces when there are expressions on them.

Long time ago, we cannot afford taking these photos because each photo costs money. We need to buy film and then, develop the photos. So, there was this hang-up to get the most out of every photo. Include the tourist spot, get the smile and make sure everyone looks like one big loving family. Now? Everything is free. Just take every thing.

Photos are free now. So, don’t get hang-ups and keep capturing your two kids standing like statues, smiling like the Cheshire cats anymore. Capture the moment, not the persons.