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There are lots of great reasons why you should learn how to take family portraits and you don’t even have to embark on a photography career to do so. Having portraits professionally done can be just too expensive for many families. And sometimes, it can be impossible to get everyone to the studio at the appointed time.

Every family deserves to have at least one good family portrait together but it’s nice to have additional portraits as the family grows and ages. If you want to learn how to take portraits, learn by taking a portrait of your family or someone you know who would love to have a family portrait! If you are taking a portrait of your own family, make sure to be in it too! So be sure to use a camera with a timer or remote shutter button release.

If you are new to photography learning how to take family portraits will also give you the opportunity to learn and practice other skills, such as taking that group picture at Thanksgiving or a team picture after the game.

So, here are some tips to help you get started taking great (formal or informal) family portraits.

1) Avoid the “Police Line Up” Portrait

Instead of lining everyone up shoulder to shoulder, try a more natural arrangement that also makes it easier to to fit a bunch of people into one picture.  Read more...

Jobs in Photography

One of the advantages of choosing photography as a hobby is that can easily cross over into a rewarding and fulfilling career. The competition may be stiff, but there’s literally an endless demand for high-quality photography in today’s day and age. You can easily practice your skills in your free time and listen to feedback that you hear from friends and other experts. When you’re ready, you can start moonlighting as a photographer in one of these in-demand industries. After you’ve built yourself a decent client base, you may be in the position to kiss that day job goodbye and live the life you’ve always wanted. Below are a list of common industries and types of jobs in photography.

o Stock. Websites like www.istock.com allow you to post your professional photographs and receive a small commission whenever someone downloads them for future use. Web designers, graphic designers, and copywriters are constantly in need of compelling images to enhance their sales copy and the visual impact of their sites and presentations. While the money won’t be enough to sustain you, it’s a great way to get a start in earning money in photography.

o Weddings and Special Events. Top-tier special event photographers earn excellent money (anywhere from $800-$6000 per event or more) by capturing someone’s special. This usually means shooting pictures of people getting married. The hours are good, the pay is great, and you are usually allowed to partake of the food and other amenities offered at the reception.  Read more...

Digital cameras are the need of this modern era. They are one of the greatest inventions of today’s world. We are really lucky to  have them with us,in order to click our various memorable moments and beautiful scenes,but we shouldn’t take them for granted at all.

Whichever of the camera you have or are planning to own,you should have a well rounded information of digital photography. I hope the following tips for taking digital wedding photography will prove to be useful for you.

1. You need to understand your camera first of all. Just stop being lazy and read about the different parts of your camera. Go through your instruction manual carefully and calmly.

2. When shooting sunny outdoor shots,try adjusting your white balance setting from auto to cloudy. The auto setting will make your shots look too cold. When you change it to cloudy,it will increase the warmth of your pictures.

3. If you are desiring for best image quality,the quality to use a variety of lenses and print large high quality snaps,then consider a Digital SLR Camera.

4. If possible then do use your flash outside also. On a sunny day you require flash when the sun is directly upon your head or behind the subject. This causes dark shadows to appear on the face of the subject. The flash will help you to reduce this.

5. Sometimes if you simply turn your camera and take vertical shots,it’ll make a world of difference. So you should always experiment with vertical picture taking.  Read more...

The progress made in recent years by the printer manufactures allows professional photographers and amateur photographers alike to print high quality photos. Other than the savings to be made by printing your own photos, perhaps the biggest attraction is the endless possibilities to tweak and try different photo reproduction methods from black and white prints to advance superimposing, all from the comfort of your own home and all at your pace. Heavy weight professional photo paper such as A3 would of course cost more than your normal run-of-the-mill printer paper, therefore to get the best out of the paper follow out tips below.

5 Photography Tips For Printing Photos:

1. Profile Match – Quality paper should be offered with a settings profile file to match your specific printer model. Normally the profile file could be downloaded from the photo paper vendor website or from the retailer who sold you the paper. In rare cases where a profile isn’t available set your printer to the highest image quality settings.

2. Paper Match – Other than ensuring that the paper type such as Inkjet or Laser is the right paper, look the paper weight to ensure it will match your preferred reproduction work. Paper weight of 300gsm and above will normally be used for artistic prints and portraits, while the less heavy 250gsm to 300gsm paper will be used for enhancing image definition for photo prints. The paper should be compatible with your ink type be it UltraChrome, K1 ,DuraBrite, Lyson inks or any other pigment or dye based inks.   Read more...

Although flashes are just one type of photography light, they are also one of the most common. Nearly all modern cameras have a flash built right into the body, and most professional photographers use flash at some point in their careers, if not every day. However, flashes are as varied in their construction, functionality, and accessories, as cameras. Here is how you can get the most out of using your flash.

Studio Flash

These are the types of flashes that you see used on fashion shoots. They’re held in place by light stands and need an external power source but are more powerful than in-camera flashes. Studio flashes are super useful photography lights. They can be easily moved around and have their output and duration adjusted so you have complete lighting control over your final image.

The first thing you should do is make sure that your flash is firing into your light umbrella or some other type of diffuser.  A direct flash will usually overpower your subject so it’s better to use a couple of reflectors and umbrellas to bounce light off your subject.  Studio flashes usually have a “modeling” light that will allow you to see the end result of your setup, so you should be able to plot this bouncing fairly well.  Read more...