Simple photo techniqes

Here are some very basic problems to avoid. I am not an expert. I learn from my mistakes, but unfortunately I repeat my mistakes. There are many books that will give you more hints.

·         The light (or sunshine) should be on the object such as the face.

·         Use the highest resolution or the pictures can fit into your largest TV in your house. Memory cards are cheap today.

·         Digital zoom (vs. optical zoom) would cut down the resolution of the picture. Digital zoom is fine if you’re not going to blow up the pictures in printer or in big TVs.

·         Most phone cameras do not have digital zoom. However, you can buy one at about $10 to clip on your phone.

·         Personally I prefer camera with built-in optical zoom (such as 65X or 50X at a lower cost). They are lighter, cheaper and better zooming (50X to 65X) than my lens-changeable camera.   

·         Press half way so the camera has enough time to focus. This requirement is less for newer computers and phones.

·         Taking pictures in your moving tour bus, use the Racing icon in your camera and keep your camera close to the window to reduce shadows. It would open the lens wider and allow light briefer. Use higher sensitive film exposure if your digital camera allows you to select.

·         Taking objects from a distance, use the Mountain icon. Usually it should focus the object far away and flash is disabled.

·         Taking pictures on flowers, use the Flower icon in your camera. Wait for any breeze that could blur the picture.

·         Use different angle to make your pictures more interesting such as using the reflection of a mirror or a glass ball.

·         It is more interesting from the top or from the bottom of a subject.

·         Sometimes close-up objects are more interesting.

·         I prefer pictures that tell a story.

·         Define background and foreground if desirable.

·         Taking people with the scenery as the background is a tradeoff. You do not want the people too small or the scenery too small either. Recommend to take pictures without the lower part of the bodies.

·         Do not wait to frame the perfect picture as you may lose the people’s expressions and/or the changing views. If you really want to frame the picture, you can use software for post processing. I used to do so but not any more due to loss of interest.

·         Most travelers take pictures for their own enjoyment and memories and they do not compete with the quality of professional and semi-professional photographers.

·         Very seldom we use manual focus. When the camera would focus in the foreground object that is secondary, use manual focus.

·         Do not use flash in most museums. Pictures are not usually allowed in most churches / temples especially during praying or religious service.

·         Use forced flash if the background is bright such as taking a portrait in front of a window. I commit this error all the time as I do not want to miss the opportunity of taking a good picture. If your camera or your mobile phone has HDR, it  works similar to forced flash.

·         Different light conditions give different effects such as sunrise and sunset.

·         Picture storage such as 32 GB chip is cheap. If you do not use it for video, you may not exceed the size of this chip even using the highest resolution allowed in your camera. I usually take about 3,000 pictures for about 10 days. I use two chips alternately for better backups.

·         Take more pictures and save the ones you like after the trip.

·         If you are running out of disk memory in your mobile phone, delete Facebook that takes a lot of disk storage. After the trip and downloading the pictures to your PC, re-install it. I do backup to my PC, so I save disk storage by deleting the updates to the cloud.

·         Learn from your pictures either good or bad. Many expert friends could give you good advices.

·         I use Google’s Pictures to share pictures. Select Photo under Google’s App from Google.com. It has a share option that you can send the link of your album to your friends.

·         Google group the pictures by date. Other software system group by name and that’s not desirable when you merge the pictures from more than one source such as your camera and your mobile phone.

·         I use Gmail to send pictures as it handles more pictures with good sizes. I also use WhatsApp and iPhone’s Message for convenience. It takes least time to share pictures using Facebook.

·         My friend makes Facebook videos combining pictures, narratives and videos into one.

·         There are many ways to show your pictures on the big TV screen depending on what are available to you. The best is using a USB drive plugged into your TV. Use connection from your camera to TV. You can also ‘cast’ the pictures to TV.

·         Most likely you forget where you visited or what you ate during the trip. Take a picture of the name of the place, the town, the brochure and all the dishes. Digital photos are virtually free.

·         You may want to save a map, an attraction by taking a picture in your mobile phone. Taking a screen shot is the best to maintain clarity. In my iPhone, it is pressing the On/Off button and the big center button simultaneously.

·         If you do not plan to use the camera for a long while, take out the battery from the camera.

Specifics for iPhone camera

·         Focus the object by tapping on the subject and two times to lock in the subject.

·         iPhone is handy and quicker to take pictures and

·         iPhone’s panorama function is amazing.

·         The quality is quite good.

·         iPhone provides a simple way to enhance the pictures – I adjust the light brightness a lot for better pictures.

My 3 cameras

I have many cameras in my life. Currently I have 3 that will be described briefly here: Canon Rebel, iPhone and Canon SX53. They all serve a specific purpose.

iPhone

Advantages: Easy to carry (need a phone anyway), easy to share in social media or with friends, very decent pictures (in most today’s phones), special functions such as panoramic pictures…

Disadvantages: No optical zoom (you can buy a cheap clip-on zoom lens).

Canon Rebel

Advantages: Full functions, lens changeable (very few times I use it). Use it on long vacations.

Disadvantages: Bulky and expensive.

Canon SX530

Advantages: Long zoom (even far better than my Rebel with zoom), light and low cost. Good for family gathering and weddings. It is a replaced camera for my wife. Relatively cheap (less than $250 in 2018 from the original price of $430).

Disadvantages: I have several of these low-cost aim-and-shoot cameras before. Most do not last long. Hopefully this one will as it seems to be sturdier. Recommend to use half of the full zoom unless you have very steady hands.

If you already only have a mobile phone for camera, I recommend SX530 for beginners. It is an old camera but it is still being marketed. The upgraded one has better features:  view finder, even longer zoom, external flash and microphone. To me it is not worth to pay about one third more. Check out reviews and your personal requirements. Most reviews talked about the cons without considering these ‘cons’ also reduce the cost and the weight of the camera.

You can load an app titled Canon Connect to your mobile phone for: 1. Load pictures from the camera to the phone and 2. Control the camera by zooming and taking pictures. The first function may not be needed as you can download the pictures to your PC via a card reader. If you are not tech savvy, try YouTube videos for instructions on how to install the Wi-Fi feature of this camera.