PictureCorrect.com: 13 Tips for Photographing School Portraits

Youngsters are back to school, and you know what that means—annual school portraits. School portraits can be challenging for both the kids and the photographer. Here are a few tips to hopefully help school picture day run a bit more smoothly.

Captured by Yuryimaging

1. Talk to the Kids

Many of them will be frightened, and a conversation can make them feel more comfortable. I know this is obvious to most people, but it matters. Try to befriend them while you install your setup. Making friends with some of the kids can earn you a VIP card. Make jokes! (But only if you’re certain they will understand and like them.)

2. Don’t Neglect the Children Waiting in Line

Ask all of the kids to participate, show them the images, ask for their help.

Captured by Syda Productions

Watch how they play when waiting, and catch some of their laughs. Even if those photos don’t make it into the graduation album, they will be successful and will boost their self-esteem. Small kids can have big egos, too, so be respectful.

3. Bring Your Favorite Lens, But Also Pack a Telephoto

The zoom will allow you to stay further away and get a glimpse of their play while being less intrusive.

4. Don’t Over-Polish Them

Make sure the kids brush their hair and clothes, but don’t overdo it.

Captured by Darrinhenry

You want to capture their essence and inner beauty.

5. Arrive Early

It will be a long day, so getting there early will be helpful, especially if it’s an outdoor session. Last time I had a school session, the temperature was upward of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, so we started at 8am.

6. Find a Comfortable Location

Unless a studio photo is a must, try to shoot in a spot familiar to them—perhaps outside or in their classroom.

Captured by Monkey Business Images

Twenty years from now, the background will matter more than the photo itself. Try several places. Some kids will be happier in the classroom, and others will act natural on the school’s field.

7. Get Some Group Shots

Remember – the teacher is very important to primary school kids.

Captured by Monkey Business Images

Don’t overdo it, though. If the teacher is omnipresent, some will feel intimidated.

8. Use Bursts

Facial expressions will change often, and you don’t want to miss the perfect shot.

9. Use a Higher ISO

Any movement can result in blurriness—fast shutter speed can also help.

10. Go for a Wide Aperture

Remember to always check your background.

Captured by Tsyganek

Don’t rush to choose f/1.4 or f/2.8 if you have your models posing in a line. If one of the kids is moving along that line, his/her face will be blurry.

11. Make Sure Both Eyes Are in Focus

Experiment a bit.

Captured by Murali Nath

Wide aperture is important if the background is unattractive. Choose f/8.0 if you want it partially visible. Experiment by moving further or closer to your model.

12. Choose Various Lenses and Angles

Go for a low angle if you want to increase height and make the kids look taller.

13. Shoot RAW

This is already old school and goes for any kind of photography. RAW format can improve quality and save you a lot of headache in post-processing (despite being slightly more time consuming overall and requiring more storage). P.S. You can also sell RAWs at higher prices on Dreamstime.

About the Author:
Serban Enache is the CEO and Founder of Dreamstime.

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PictureCorrect.com: How to Use Window Light for Portraits

Window light can be some of the prettiest light when shooting portraiture. It provides a nice, soft, natural light around the model, if used correctly. Photographer Daniel Norton explains that not all window light is the same. If you’re going for softness, you won’t get it on clear, sunny days with the sun shining directly into the window. Overcast days are best, but there are a few tricks if you don’t have the cloudy conditions:

When talking about window light, people usually think directional, but soft light coming in through a window. But, if your subject is south-facing and direct sunlight is pouring in, that’s not going to give you the nice, soft light you want. You need a day that’s overcast or to use a silk over the window to soften the light.

In this tutorial, Norton places his model beside and in front of two windows. The window behind her has a white curtain pulled over it so it allows natural light but so you can’t see outside. He begins with the side window shade open to allow the natural light in and since it’s overcast, the lighting falls across the model’s face nicely.

If it’s a bright, sunny day, you might want to consider more of a profile-type of shot, with the model facing the window to get wrap around light and eliminate harsh shadows.

You can also have the model back up a little so she’s not getting hit with direct window light. This will lower her exposure a little, but the light will wrap around her better. By moving just slightly out of the direct light, the model doesn’t need to turn so much toward the window. You can have a 3/4 turn profile shot.

If you do want to fill in the light more and give an even light across the model’s face, you can always use a reflector or even just a piece of white foam board. Have your helper bring the reflector in as close as they can to the model’s face, then back it up a little out of the shot; that way you will get the most light possible out of it.

If you want to make the shadows more dense, use the black side of the foam board in the same way.

On very sunny days, you can simply pull a white curtain over the window or use a screen to cut out the harshness. These are just a few tips to capture beautiful, soft natural light for portraits.

For this photo shoot, Norton uses a Fuji X-Pro 1 with a Voigtlander Heliar 75mm f/1.8L lens.

For help with post-processing: Topaz Clean for Portrait Retouching

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PictureCorrect.com: Tips to Eliminate Closed Eyes & Squinting in Portraits

In a previous article, I discussed shooting with the light at the subject’s back, creating a “halo” lighting pattern. Aside from being a particularly stunning light pattern, it automatically eliminates one of the biggest problems we have as photographers: squinting and closed eyes.

“nana’s eyes closed – close up” via jenny cu

With the light coming from the rear, the face is in shadow, and with no direct light, there’s no need for the model to squint. But what if we want a more conventional lighting pattern and want to shoot with the light coming from the front or coming from the side?

Here are a couple tips to help avoid the problem.

First, we know that the light from the sun is more beautiful the closer it gets to sundown. The harsh white of midday turns into a nice golden glow.

Good news! It is not only prettier to look at, it’s easier to look at, too. So the first step in getting rid of squinting is to shoot closer to sundown.

Second, for some subjects, it’s almost impossible for them to look toward the sun. They have overly sensitive eyes and will almost always be squinting.

I don’t know why, but for some reason people with lighter colored eyes—blue eyes, green eyes—seem to be more sensitive to light.

Here is a tip that can help. This should only be used in cases where nothing else is working, as it’s difficult for the subject to pull this off and look natural, but it’s better than squinting.

As photographers, we’re constantly counting to three and shooting. This is generally done to capture a smile, but it can also be done to avoid squinting.

“Shaggy Squint” captured by Vox Efx

Have your subject posed the way you want them and then have them close their eyes. You count to three, and they open their eyes and smile. They only have to have their eyes open for a second or so, and if they can look natural it can be the difference between a truly great shot and another one for the garbage.

Opening the eyes and looking natural—while knowing the sun is going to get to you—can take a bit of practice. Take the time to run through it a few times and not only will you get better shots, but every photographer that ever shoots them in the future will benefit as well.

Third, some subjects aren’t particularly sensitive to the light, but to a flash. They tend to squint in anticipation of the flash going off.

The obvious solution is not to use a flash, but sometimes we need one, so here is an idea: don’t aim the flash at the subject. Bounce it off the ceiling or an adjacent wall.

Yes, I know there’s no ceiling outside, but there are plenty of adjacent walls. (The side of a truck will do the job!) Just be careful not to use a colored wall because that will put a colored tint in your photo.

By the way, bouncing a flash is almost always the preferred method, not just with “squinters.”

Another idea is to use a reflector. That way you can bounce more light into the subject and may not need a flash. Or you can use it as your bounce “wall.”

You can finally eliminate closed and squinting eyes from your photos!

About the Author:
Dan Eitreim writes for ontargetphototraining.com. He has been a professional photographer in Southern California for over 20 years. His philosophy is that learning photography is easy if you know a few tried and true strategies.

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PictureCorrect.com: 48 DSLR Cameras Used to Capture Fire Breathing

I always like it when resourceful photographers get their hands on some outstanding equipment and just let loose with it. The video below is made by Mitch Martinez, who set up no fewer than 48 DSLR cameras to capture these stunning shots:

The slow motion itself is a fantastic visual effect, but when you see the same image from multiple angles, you really get to see the shape of the flames and how they take life in front of the performers.

Static shot of a fire breather unleashing a huge flame

The whole video uses no CGI and no visual effects. What you see is what happened in the studio, and when you see it in 48 cameras it makes it even more real than it was for the people who were there.

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PictureCorrect.com: Interesting Photo of the Day: Down the Pelican’s Throat

Pelicans are terrifying creatures. They swallow everything whole—birds, fish, fellow baby pelicans in their first few years of life. After dying from suffocation, the eaten animals are slowly digested by the birds’ stomach acids.

But, hey, look how cool their mouths look in the sunlight!

(Via Imgur. Click image to see full size.)

That little fish is in the bird’s gular pouch, a huge batwing-like flap that can expand and contract. The goofy-looking birds also eat crabs, lobsters and lizards, along with common birds—even pigeons in cities. But fossil records indicate that pelicans have been around for roughly 40 million years, so the system seems to be working out for them. Nature is a strange and fascinating thing.

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PictureCorrect.com: 8 Levels of Photographer (But, Really 9)

It’s always good to be able to laugh at yourself and show the lighter side of life. Well, the guys over at DigitalRev TV are pretty good at that, and they’re at it again with this fun take on the different levels of photographer. Using a video game style as the theme, this video hilariously lays out the stages we all go through as photographers:

Level 0: Just Starting

You’re just getting started, so you spend all your time looking at other people’s photos.

Level 1: Keyboard Photographer

You spend most of your time acquiring a little bit of knowledge, just so you can abuse other photographers in online forums.

Level 2: Gear Geek

You’re pretty much just obsessed with collecting gear, and not so much about actually taking pictures.

Level 3: The Student

You are here to learn and have a lot of potential. You practice, take notes and want to become better.

Level 4: The Casual Snapper

You just enjoy taking pictures and don’t have any pretensions. You take pictures on a regular basis, often of random stuff, but you like it, so who cares?

Level 5: Hobbyist

You hone your skills all day and night, constantly reading about photography so you can be the best. By now, you know how to operate the camera well and what’s needed to get a good shot.

Level 6: Online Legend

You’ve mastered the art of marketing your photos online. These days, the only way to prove your work is to show how good you are compared to other photographers online. You can take great photos and you know how to present your work to get noticed.

Level 7: The Pro

You’ve made it. This is the dream for most photographers, but when you finally get here, you realize it’s not about getting paid for what you love to do, but for what the client wants you to do. And often, those clients don’t understand what good photography is.

Level 8: The Artist

This is the highest level of photographer. If you’ve reached this level, you probably wear a hat and live in a world of your own. You don’t care about technicalities or aim to be the most popular, you just do whatever you feel like and end up taking amazing photos.

Fair enough, we often switch between these levels—as we progress, but also at any time throughout our careers—and may have even skipped one or two along the way, but I’m sure we can all relate to each level. Either you know someone like this, or you’ve been there at some point in your photography life. Which level are you?

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Angkor Wat under the stars by pimraj (500px.com/pimraj)

The sky above The Angkor Wat ,Siemriep,Cambodia is full of stars when the moon disappeared via 500px http://ift.tt/1JwTvfR

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Startrails at Merapi by teguhsn (500px.com/teguhsn)

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PictureCorrect.com: Diagonal Lines in Landscape Photography

Today’s landscape photo tip involves diagonal lines. In a landscape photo, portrait photo, still life or any other kind of photo, the first major task of the photographer is to draw the viewer’s eye to the most important aspects of the shot and keep it there!

“SG Skyline” captured by Jet Rabe

We want our photo to send some sort of message. If not, we shouldn’t be taking the shot. So we want to be certain that our viewer’s attention is focused in the right area. By the way, the message we’re sending could be as simple as wanting them to see an attractive cloud formation or some pretty colors in a rainbow—whatever.

We’re taking the shot because something in that scene attracted us and we want the viewer to see it, too.

This is actually the whole point to the photo composition rules. To make sure the viewer sees what we want them to see in the scene.

First, let’s consider how a person looks at a photo. Obviously it’s not a hard and fast rule. After all, people are individuals. But eye tracking studies have shown that people tend to start off in the lower left of the frame and let their eye travel up toward the upper right. Add to that the tendency of a viewer’s eye to follow natural lines in a photo and you have the genesis of a pretty powerful compositional tool.

In photography, diagonal lines starting at the lower left and traveling toward the upper right are very powerful.

“Reflections of Calatrava” captured by George Grivas

Why does the viewer’s eye typically go from left to right? For many of us, it’s because we’re accustomed to reading from left to right. We tend to look at all text and photos in that way.

Keep this in mind… I haven’t seen any studies to support this, but I suspect that in countries where people read from right to left, the viewer’s eye will travel from right to left. In that case, design your diagonals to lead them into the photo from right to left.

Keep your potential viewers in mind when you’re designing your photography composition.

When you’re trying to determine where to place your diagonals, try not to start or end right in the corner. Photography diagonal lines that split the composition in half are no more interesting than placing the main subject in the bulls eye position.

Your diagonal lines don’t have to be an actual line. It could be a fence drawing a viewer’s eye, the horizon (if you’re shooting at some funky angle)—anything!

Try this: have diagonal lines coming from both right and left and converging at the subect of your photo.

While vertical and horizontal leading lines are nice compositional elements, diagonal lines are more dynamic and will impart more strength and verve to your shot.

“Delegal Creek, Skidaway Island, Georgia” captured by Doug Herrick

Your assignment for today is to get out there with your camera and find ten different ways to add diagonal lines to your photos. This landscape photo tip—while it seems simple—is one of the big photo composition rules. Master it!

About the Author:
Dan Eitreim writes for ontargetphototraining.com. He has been a professional photographer in Southern California for over 20 years. His philosophy is that learning photography is easy if you know a few tried and true strategies.

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magnetic termite mound by christoph-schaarschmidt (http://ift.tt/1N1g0KQ)

Photographing stars you usually need a compass - but not in the Litchfield National Park in the Northern Territory/Australia. Some termites here somehow managed to use the magnetic field of our earth to build this unique kind of mounds, which are alligned from north to south. They look like flat tombstones, but their secret is that the sun warms up the eastern side first after cold nights, while the midday sun only reaches a small part of it directly - so it never gets too hot inside. via 500px http://ift.tt/1PTRBK5

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Startrails in Banat by PanfilPirvulescu (http://ift.tt/1PTRBK3)

A night in Banat, near Cornesti village. Total exposure time: 32.5 min ISO 3200 Aperture: f/5 via 500px http://ift.tt/1WmrhqJ

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PictureCorrect.com: Wedding Ring Photography Technique

If you’re into wedding photography, you know that one image that you must have is the ring shot. As simple as the shot my seem, it’s often frustrating when you have to deal with a bad background or poor lighting. In this video Paul Keppel demonstrates an easy to use technique to make that ring shot in less than a minute and with brilliant results:

Equipment

Keppel uses a Nikon D750, full-frame camera, paired with a Sigma 105mm f/2.8 macro lens. His secret is in the lighting. He uses a Yongnuo Ny 160 Mark II, which is an inexpensive LED video light. This light has a set of barn doors attached to its sides, and therein is the trick.

Keppel stumbled upon this technique quite by chance. Once while shooting, holding the LED light in one hand and the camera in the other Keppel’s arms started to get tired. He put the light down on a piano, balanced on the barn doors, and in that instant an idea struck him.

“I literally put the light down and the next minute I realized that it’d make a perfect little softbox like a light tent for the rings. And that’s how the shot came about.”

Technique

Place the rings on a shiny or metallic surface. The edges of the rings should be on the same plane so that both of them are in focus.

Next, place the LED light, balanced on the barn doors, on top of the ring.

LED light placed right on top of the rings

Open the front flap so that you can shoot through. Placement of the rings will depend on your artistic vision. Keppel places them about three quarters to the back. That way the light tends to wrap around the subject.

Shooting through the barn doors

Focus, and make the image.

Simple isn’t it?

For further training: Wedding Photography Lighting

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