You didn’t think we were done with the Don’t Say Cheese! series…did you.  Absolutely not.  You know how it goes…you get busy with Christmas…then New Year’s.  Well, with the holidays now over we can get back down to business and hopefully learn something new about taking photos of your kids.  In part 7 of this series, I want to tell you about the fantastic benefits of Window Light.  Window light can be an amazing tool in your photo arsenal if you learn how to use it properly.  The best natural light you can photograph in are the sunrise and sunset magic hours.  After the magic hour in the morning is past (usually happens right after the sun pops up…early in the am) and before the magic hour in the evening you can be left with some really unflattering light from direct overhead sun.  But if you go inside and use window light to use as your main light source you will get beautiful soft directional light that will make you look like a pro.

Now not all window light is equal.  This is according to most artists who paint.  Have you ever heard of an artist who insisted on having a north facing room to paint in?  Most artists will tell you that north facing windows give you the most consistent prettiest light.  Not sure what they have against south facing light, but anywho.  All YOU need to worry about is finding the a window in your house and as long as there isn’t direct sunlight streaming though it, the window will give you that soft directional light that portrait photographers crave.  In fact photographers use a lighting tool to mimic window light.  It is called a soft box and they come in all different sizes from 1 foot square to over 6 feet tall.  These soft boxes give photographers that same directional soft light as window light does.

Here is what a softbox looks like.

You might be asking, “Ok, so how do I use this window light to take photos of my kids when they are going 100 miles per hour?”  Great question…I’m not sure.  Hey, I didn’t say this was fool proof ;-D.  Taking photos with the window light might require a little cooperation from the kids or maybe during a time when they are quietly playing or resting.  One good little trick that I have used is to tell them to look at the kangaroo outside (insert whatever you want…just get them to look outside).  Then they usually look pretty intently out the window.  This is a great photo op for a natural expression of them.  Then they will look at you because you are taking a picture of them.  If you time it right and use your sense of humor you can get them to laugh and bingo!  There is your chance to get that candid, beautifully lit, perfectly timed portrait.  Just be fast.

I invite you to start noticing how the light that is coming through your windows shapes the objects in your house.  Now insert a small child in and see what you can create.

Here are a few examples to illustrate how beautiful window light can be!

Thanks to Travis Atwood Design - http://travisatwooddesign.com

Thanks to Stacey Woods Photography - http://www.staceywoodsphoto.com/

Thanks to Artem Loshak for the beautiful photo

Just like a strong wind, Christmas has come and gone.  Our hope is that you savored every moment you had with your family or loved ones.  For parents with small kids your Christmas was probably a blur.  You may have stayed up until the wee hours in the morning putting toys together, wrapping them and getting everything just perfect for your little ones.  You probably got to bed at…oh…let’s say 2 or 3 am.  You got a good solid 3 or 4 hours of sleep before the kids wake up at 6 am (or 7 am if you were lucky).  You jump out of bed and grab your camera to make sure you capture all of the wonder and amazement (and wrapping paper carnage).  Each gift is photographed and the huge smiles on their face are priceless…although the socks and underwear weren’t the biggest hits (no worries, they will make for great laughs years down the road).

Now what.  If you are anything like me you end up with a ton of great memories captured and then they just end up sitting on my computer.  So let’s put our heads together and come up with a few ideas on some ways to put those photos to good use.

One idea would be to create a small album of Christmas 2011.  This is a great way to relive the memories of the day, and as the years go by you can look at this album and see how much your kids have grown (and get a chuckle at their expressions when they opened up their socks and underwear).

Another idea is to create a Christmas collage where you could put several photos on canvas.  You could design this yourself if you have a program like Photoshop, Photoshop Elements or even Power Point.  Choose a size you are comfortable with (ex 20″x30″) then choose your favorite photos you want displayed on the canvas print.  Lay them out in a way that matches your design tastes.  Then just upload that finished file to us (www.canvaspress.com) and we will take care of the rest.  This could be an ongoing tradition that could be part of your holiday decorating for years to come.  If you don’t have the means to do this yourself we can always help you out.  Just contact Canvas Press and we would be more than happy to help create your Christmas collage.

The last idea that I can think of (and I am sure there are many many more) would be to create a DIY (Do It Yourself) album.  If you are into scrapbooking or DIY projects then you can print out the photos you want in your album and add your own creative designs to it.  Canvas Press does offer several different photo papers if you want to try them out.  My favorite is our Fine Art Paper.  It is a 100% cotton rag paper that is fully archival.  You could print out several photos on one 8×10 or 11×14 sheet then cut them out yourself.  Visit Pinterest for a ton of different DIY photo ideas.

We would love to hear some other brilliant ideas that you may have come up with.  Feel free to share them with us here under comments or on Facebook.

Christmas lights are beautiful, but it can be very hard to get nice photos of a lit tree or decorations.  On Tuesday night I went down to partake in an Austin tradition…the Zilker Christmas tree.  Which isn’t so much a tree but lights strung from a large radio tower to make a tree of lights.  If you are not from Austin you are probably thinking…”hmmm, that’s odd”.  Hence the city’s slogan, “Keep Austin Weird”.  Actually, it is a lot of fun, people go every year to spin under the lights, get dizzy, eat some kettle corn and drink hot chocolate.  So, I was just playing around with my camera and was thinking of some interesting ways to capture the Zilker Tree and the experience of being there…plus make some cool art that later I might put on our walls.  One thing that is fairly easy to do with your DSLR camera (or any camera you can manually focus the lens with) is to take photos of the lights out of focus.  By taking them out of focus the little lights become large balls of light.  Kind of a cool abstract color study.  Another trick is camera movement.  Especially in a dark setting when your shutter speed is going to be really slow you can do a form of “light writing” or making designs with the available light.  In this case the available light is the Christmas lights and by moving the camera (spinning, zooming, panning) you can create very interesting patterns with your photo.  Here are some examples of what I came up with.  Try some of these tricks with your own Christmas tree and presto you have some new art to hang next Christmas.  Remember you can always count on us to put those art photos on canvas for you!

Here is the Zilker Tree to give you an idea of what I was talking about.

The is what a normal photo might look like of Christmas lights. Kind of dull. We need to spice it up a bit.

This is spinning and taking a photo at the same time...It's a high degree of difficulty...for me.

More spinning, this is a form of Light Writing.

 

The more out of focus the lights are, the bigger they get (depending on what lens you are using)

I like that you can still see the star at the top of the tree.

Love how the lights blend into the dots.

The lights still take on the form of a tree but it isn't so literal

Let’s change gears for just a sec.  You all know that of course you can print your photos on canvas, but have you ever thought of creating graphic or word art on a canvas?  It is a lot easier than you might think, and can be a great addition to your seasonal home decorating.  Since Christmas is upon us let’s go through the steps of making a fun canvas print based on a Christmas carol.

Here is what you will need for this jolly ‘ole…project:

1. Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.  You can also do this with Powerpoint or even Microsoft Word if you are in a pinch.
2. A cool font or fonts of your choosing.
3. A line from a Christmas carol that you love.

1st off I am going to pick the perfect font (sometimes this could be fonts depending on the project you want to take on).  I am a professed font-aholic so at least I have admitted it.  My favorite place to get my font fix is definitely Dafont.com…I could (and have) spent hours on there pouring over all of their fonts.  Most computers come with the standard font choices and one of those may work so be sure to check there first before venturing to free font sites.  Here is one quick rule about mixing more than one font on a page.  Normally serif and sans-serif fonts don’t play well together, but you know what, ultimately it is up to you because this will be hanging in your house.  I found a font I really like called “Pinstripe Limo” that has a little vintage flair.

2nd step is to come up with a line from a Christmas carol that you really like.  This can be kind of tough to narrow down.  So if you have 3 or 4 that you really like then think about doing multiple canvases and place them throughout your house to tie all of your decorations together or even give one as a gift

I finally landed on a line that I really like (after listening to Christmas music for 8 hours straight).  I am going to go with “Have A Holly Jolly Christmas” in my Pinstripe Limo font.

3rd step is to consider the size of the canvas piece and the color scheme.  I am a big fan of large graphic prints.  I love how they can make a bold statement, but they can so easily tie into the rest of your decoration around the house.  So they pull double duty…centerpiece or supporting role.  I am going to make my canvas art piece 20″ wide x 30″ high at 180 dpi (by the way, 180 dpi is the perfect resolution for fine art printing onto canvas).

And for my color scheme.  My wife and I have been on this kick the last few years of using non-traditional schemes for our holiday decorating.  Not that there is anything wrong with red and green, but we like to play with color.  So for this project I am going to go with a lighter blue background and my font will be brighter red (well at least one of my colors is a traditional Christmas color).  Here is the blue I chose.

My 4th step is to go ahead and start typing and formatting my text on my 20×30 file in Photoshop.  You may have to play around a little with your formatting.  The easy way around this is putting each line of type as a separate layer in Photoshop.  That way you can move it around anywhere you want.  Again, there is no wrong way to do this.  You get to use that creativity of yours to format your text however you like.  I am a big fan of crisp and clean lines so this is what I came up with.

I finished up my Christmas canvas art by adding a few snowflakes on a layer behind the text to add a little texture and depth to the photo.  This was another font I found on dafont.com called WWFlakes (did I mention I love fonts).  Here is the finished project.  Just imagine all the possibilities you could start to explore by adding text to photos and decorating with inspirational words.  We will be giving you many more ideas on this on the upcoming weeks.  I can’t wait.

Now all you have to do is log on to Canvas Press, upload your finished file (jpg), select your canvas depth and size (20×30 for me), and I am going to select the color border option and match the color on the side to the blue on the front.  Then just add it to your cart and you are ready to go.

Whether you just picked up a camera for the first time yesterday, or you are a photo enthusiast, or even a seasoned pro…there are a few things you can learn about photography from using Facebook.  Here we go…in no particular order.

1. Join a group that talks about photography in your area.  If one doesn’t exist start one and invite your local friends to join the group.  This is a great way to ask questions about gear, camera settings, etc.  You can also share your photos to the group and ask for feedback.  A great example of this is an Austin area group called Austin Photogs.  Which has over 600 members and is active every single day with new posts, questions and comments.  It is a great way to learn from a community.  Be prepared to put yourself out there.  There is not hiding behind a funny user name like there is in a photography forum.  People know who you are…but if that doesn’t scare you then by all means go for it…It’s the only way you get any better.
2. Take an informal poll.  Post a few photos and pose the question to your friends to let you know which one they like best.  You can also use the Facebook polling feature to dress it up a little.  This is good practice for putting your photos in front of other peoples eyes.  This becomes more difficult when you start asking for honest criticism.  At least right now you are just asking people which one they like better (You could always ask them why as well).
3. Create photo assignments for yourself and post them in your profile’s photo album.  The photo album feature is a perfect way to start thinking about how to tell a story with multiple photos.  The albums are easy to view and when you post them it creates a great synopsis of your photo story.  This will start you thinking down the path of developing your style.  Seeing several photos from the same event next to each other will begin to show your photographic style and point of view.
4. Speaking of Style (what a great segue)…Facebook is a great show and tell and playground all wrapped in one to help you develop your photo style.  One thing people love on Facebook is photos…but often times people will just glaze over them because the photos don’t strike them as special (minus close fam and friends…they will always comment on your photos.  As they should).  So if you want more people to take notice of your photos on Facebook then developing a style is very important.  We will talk about how exactly to develop your style in a different post.
5. Ask for constructive criticism.  Facebook is full of people who love to give their opinions so why not ask those people for honest constructive feedback about your photos.  Not everyone will take you up on it but a few might.  The best place to ask for this criticism is in an environment where people know what they are talking about when it comes to taking photos.  So this ties back to #1 on the list and joining a photography group.  Again, you will need to have some courage…be brave and put your photo out there and specifically let people know you want feedback and criticism on your work.  It is possibly the hardest thing you can do.  Let’s face it no one likes to hear that something they have done is bad, but that honesty and criticism will make you a much better photographer than if people didn’t tell you what you need to work on.

There you go.  5 ways Facebook can help you become a better photographer.  Remember that Canvas Press is always here to help you out if you need some direction.

You know the one nice thing about back in the day when all you could take photos with was film…you actually got photos out of the deal.  Real, touchable, feel-able photos in your hands to look at.  In the digital age it is so easy to get in the habit of just leaving your photos on your camera or phone.  And so what ends up happening is that you take photos until your camera’s card is full…which inevitably ends up happening when you are out and about and want to take a bunch of photos.  But you can’t cuz your card is FULL.  Even your smartphone’s camera roll can get bogged down with waaaay too many photos.  Here is a fairly easy Workflow for getting the photos off your camera and phone and organized in a way that is easily accessible and viewable.  It also makes it easy if you do want to make prints from your photos or start a photo project (maybe a family album, photo enlargement, or canvas print).

This How To is probably an Intermediate to Advanced level.

What you will need for your photo workflow (and this is optional):

• An external / portable hard drive – You can pick one of these up for around $100 and they are a fantastic idea to create a backup of all your images and important computer documents in case something happens to your computer.
• Software to rename your photos with 4 digits. (Adobe Bridge, Adobe Lightroom, Photo Mechanic, & for you Mac users…Automator are all good programs to use to rename your photos).  Again, this is completely optional.

Here are the steps to creating your workflow:

1. Create a KEEP folder on your desktop – This is a Main folder that you will initially house subfolders that you will dump your images into.
2. Under KEEP folder create a NEW FOLDER that is named in this format: year-month-day description (YY-MM-DD Description).  For example the folder I put all the images in from Christmas day would be named: 11-12-25 Christmas.  Putting the year first ensures your folders will stay in order.  For each month and day be sure to use a 2 digit place holder.  So January 1st, 2012 would look like: 12-01-01
3. In each NEW FOLDER you set up is where you can dump the appropriate photos for that particular date.  If you have a ton of photos from several different days you can download them all to the KEEP folder first then separate them into their subfolders as needed.
4. This part is completely optional and is a little more advanced.  Renaming your images.  Renaming images ensures that no images get lost…so if for some reason a photo got moved out of it’s folder you would know exactly where it goes based on the name.  So what should we name these suckers?  Name them the same as the folder they are in (without the dashes).  So it will be – YYMMDD Description – then your computer will auto name them.  So those Christmas photos I will be taking will be named:  111225 Christmas 0001.jpg.  The only thing that will change in this name will the the 4 digit number (0001, 0002, 0003, etc)…and my computer will take care of that part for me.  If you don’t know how to rename your photos no worries.  At least you have them in a folder with the a name that will keep you more organized.
5. At this point I will copy the entire main folder (11-12-25 Christmas) to my back-up portable hard drive for safe keeping.
6. Subfolders – If you like to play around with Photoshop or other photo editing software then you may want to make a few subfolders within named event folder.  I like to make 2 subfolders to help me further organize my images.  I name them: 01EDITS, & 02DISCARD.  I put the 01 and 02 in front of them to ensure that they will stay at the top of the other image files in the folder.  Now I can go through and throw out any images I don’t like, and if I play with a photo in Photoshop I can save it into my 01EDITS folder so I am not saving over the original.  ALWAYS KEEP YOUR ORIGINALS UNTOUCHED.

There you go, in 6 steps(or 5 if you don’t want to rename your photos…fine, you won’t hurt my feelings) you will have a super organized and easy to look at photo folders.  Now you can find exactly what you are looking for the next time you want to order a canvas print or make a photo collage or just reminisce about your summer vacation.

Here is an example of what the general organization order is:

-KEEP (Main Folder)

-11-12-25 Christmas (Event Folder)

-01EDITS

-02DISCARD

-11-12-31 New Years

-12-01-16 Mom’s Birthday

And Here is a screen shot of what my Keep folder looks like on my Desktop here at work.

For this blog post our very own Caroline Cohoon will take the reigns.  Caroline is not only our amazing Director of Customer Service but she is also an accomplished photographer and world traveler.  Take it away Caroline.

Thanks Eric!  You know, selling original paintings is a wonderful thing but it comes with a price. Not only meaning it comes with a large price tag, but also the fact that you no longer have the painting around. Making gicleé canvas prints is a great way to get even more out of your art.

The art market often takes a big hit when the economy takes a down turn, and be able to offer more affordable options for you art through gicleés you can help keep business thriving. Offering gicleés in no way diminishes the value or desirability of your original painting. Originals are truly one of a kind and show a depth and texture that won’t always be identical in the gicleé copy. You can also embellish each gicleé after printing so that each one becomes a new and unique piece with even more value.

Some places offer scanning services but unless you are in a big city you may not be able to find somewhere capable of scanning large paintings. You can also hire a photographer to take digital photos of your art in a studio but both these options may add a lot of expense to your reproduction budget. Here are a few tips to getting a good digital photo of your art that will make for good quality gicleé reproductions.

Make sure your camera settings are correct. You want the highest resolution available. While cameras today are often 10+ MP you can set them to a lower setting to get more photos on a memory card. For your reproductions, always make sure it is on the maximum setting. Check the compression level as well; you want a large JPG file that won’t compress the photos causing pixelation. This usually looks like stair steps or a pie piece, but it may also be described as “standard, fine or superfine.” You want “superfine” or the pie piece. If you don’t have a good quality camera you might consider renting one for a day from a local camera shop. Tell them your plans and see what equipment they recommend.

Lighting is key. You want the most even light possible. If you like to varnish your paintings to make them glossy it is best to photograph them before adding that varnish to reduce any glare. Make sure all the lighting is the same. If you have daylight from windows in the scene as well as indoor lights the colors will not reproduce correctly. You could shoot outside in shade for even light, or indoors with only one light source but try to make sure there are no shadows. Turn the flash off. It will only create shadows and glare.

Put the camera on a tripod to make sure it gets a sharp picture. Set it to be straight on the art and as close as possible. You want to fill the image as much as you can with the art to maximize resolution. Try to get the painting as level as possible. If there is a slight angle then the painting will not appear square in the finished digital file.

Take extra shots. Don’t take just one, take a few to make sure. You may also experiment shots in different lighting to make sure you like the end result.

The digital picture will likely need some touchups to make sure it is the best possible copy of your painting. Color and contrast adjustment, as well as touching up any glare spots or leveling the edges to make sure it is square. If you have some knowledge of Photoshop you can try these adjustments yourself. Never save over your original, give the edited version a new name and save it as a copy just in case you need to go back to the original. To maintain quality, if you crop the photo make sure you don’t change the resolution and make it smaller. When adjusting the image size always make sure that “resample image” is unchecked. Also save as a JPG at the maximum quality level which in Photoshop is number 12. This is the same setting as the compression level we discussed setting for the camera. You can also have Canvas Press do these tweaks and cropping for you with our basic retouching option that only costs $15.

If you aren’t satisfied with your results then you may want to choose to have it professionally done. Get in touch with some local artist groups and see if they have recommendations or perhaps have a discount setup with someone who can make digital copies for you.

Making gicleé prints on canvas helps bring your paintings alive. Since the texture matches that of an original painting on canvas it adds realism and makes an incredible copy. Again, it won’t be the same as your original but it will make a beautiful piece of art with excellent value.

I have to give a big thank you to my sister Jen for coming up with this topic.  What the heck do all these things mean on my camera dial?  They could also be somewhere on your point and shoot…Let me give you an idea of what I am talking about.  If you have a DSLR…or something that looks like this

Then you may have a dial on top of the camera that looks like either of these.  The top one is a Nikon dial and the bottom one is a Canon dial.

Even if you have a point and shoot my bet is that some of these same figures and letters are somewhere on your camera.  Now the trick is figuring out what they mean and how to use them…or should I use them.  The goal here is taking better pictures of your kids…right.  And a big part of that is understanding your camera and how it works and what it’s limitations are.  Just like GI Joe always said “Knowing is half the battle”…important words to live by.  Ok, I may be overstating, but it is kind of true.

All right, let’s get down to it.  What exactly do those thingies on your dial mean, what do they do, and should I use them or not.  First off let’s figure out what they mean.  Here is a quick guide to let you know at least what the buttons stand for.

The first thing I want you to do is ignore and don’t use any of the little picture icon settings like: portrait, landscape, close-up/macro, sport…etc.  Those aren’t magical settings that are going to make that particular photo look fantastic and brilliant.  They are presets that the camera companies have pre-programmed to try to help you out in those situations.  In my opinion you don’t need them, and they can often mess you up more than they help you out.

Onto the letters and a little more about their meaning.  I will go in order of importance (in my opinion)

• M – Manual Mode – That means that the shutter speed and the aperture are completely in your control.  The upside: You have the most creative control in manual.  The downside: Probably the hardest to master.  *Note: I would say the majority of professional photographers learn and shoot in Manual Mode.
• A or Av – Aperture Priority Mode – In aperture priority mode you select which aperture you want to shoot at and your camera auto selects the best shutter speed for a “correct” exposure.  This mode can be very helpful if you are in a situation where your light is constantly changing.  In manual mode your fingers would be busy changing settings, in aperture priority mode, you set the aperture and the camera does the shutter speed.  Did you notice the ” ” around the word, correct?  Without getting into too much technical stuff, just know that you may still need to do some tweaking to the image to get an exposure to your liking.  Overall this is a good setting to use in a pinch.
• S or Tv – Shutter Priority Mode – You guessed it…you select which shutter speed you want to shoot at and the camera will select the aperture for a balanced exposure.  You know what…honestly…I wouldn’t worry about using Shutter Priority.  Aperture Priority is much better to master (in my opinion).  So for right now, don’t use it.  Oh, and why Canon decided on Tv for Shutter priority?  It stands for “Time Value”.  They are trying to keep it Old School.
• P – Program Mode – This is a little bit better than fully auto.  The camera is still picking your shutter and aperture for you, but you can still adjust a few things you couldn’t in Auto mode.  You can control the flash, the ISO (film speed) and white balance of the camera.  The upside: Your flash won’t automatically pop up for almost every single photo.  You are in control of when the flash fires or not and a few other things that control the quality of the photo.  The downside: You are losing a lot of creative control with the camera choosing your shutter speed and aperture.
• Auto or green rectangle – Auto Mode – the camera is in complete control of…well…pretty much everything.  You are just pointing and shooting (probably not why you bought a DSLR).  It is controlling your shutter speed, your aperture, when the flash goes off, the white balance of the photo, and the ISO the photo is taken at.  The upside: This is a good way to learn if you are just starting.  Begin to notice how shutter speeds and aperture work together.  The downside: Zero creative control.  Your DSLR is a effectively a large, expensive point and shoot (which is totally ok when you are starting out.)

My challenge to you would be to learn how to use your camera in the M for Manual mode.  But we can take baby steps.  At least now you know exactly what those buttons are.  You can start to explore by using them…skipping over a bunch of them and take note of what does what on your camera.

Once you start to master these different modes you will notice how much more control you have over your photos and how good they will start to look…of course you know Canvas Press is here to make any of those amazing photos you take into canvas prints for you ;-D…Just in case you forgot.

The Rule of Thirds is probably the single most important thing to learn when your start practicing your photography.  It will automatically make your photos more interesting.  I didn’t say it would make your photos great, but it will definitely make them more interesting to look at.  When we talk about The Rule of Thirds we are basically talking about Composition or the placement of key subjects in relation to one another in the photograph.  So whenever I use the word “composition” I am talking about “the rule of thirds” and vice versa.  Have you ever heard of people saying, “Well he/she has a great eye” when it comes to photography.  More than likely that “eye” they are talking about relates to how you compose your photographs.  You can be born with a great “eye” or you can develop and practice your composition and develop your “eye” for composing great photographs.  This is where The Rule of Thirds helps out those people who may be “Composition-ally Challenged” (by the way, I know I am using quotations waaay too much in this post already so I will try to cut back).

So, what exactly is The Rule of Thirds?  The wiki definition states: an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections.

Let’s simplify that shall we.  Have you ever played tic-tac-toe?  If you drew out a tic-tac-toe board across your photo like this you will have the guidelines for the rule of thirds:

So what should you do with those lines.  Well let’s go back to simplifying the Wikipedia definition.  I’ll break it down like this.  Don’t put your subject (in this case…your kids) smack in the middle of the frame.  The rule is you don’t want to split your subject in half (both vertically or horizontally).  Use these lines as guides to place your subject on one of the lines for a more pleasing composition.  This rule is especially helpful to those of you who like to dabble in a little vacation photos or landscapes.  The general rule is that you shouldn’t put the horizon line in the middle of your photo.  Place it closer to the top third or bottom third of the photo.

Now let’s go one step further.  The intersection of the lines on your tic-tac-toe rule of thirds are called “power points”…no…not the Microsoft software.  These are areas of a photo where your eye naturally falls.  So if you can compose your image to have one of the important elements landing on one of the power points your photo will be that much more compelling and interesting to look at.  Here are where those power points are at:

Allright.  Now it is time to show you some real world examples of some good uses of The Rule of Thirds so you can get an idea of how you can use it the next time you are composing a photo of your kids.  None of these photos are split down the middle.  In some of them the subject is just off to the center, but it makes a big difference.

This last photo is a good example of using the bottom 2/3 of the the image and leaving room at the top of the photo as interesting blank space.  And notice he isn’t split exactly down the middle of the photograph…so even a slight adjustment can make a big difference.

I also recommend you google “Rule of Thirds” and there are a ton of other great examples…these are just ones I happened to have taken over the past year or so.  You can also get some great examples of using the Rule of Thirds when photographing landscapes and other scenic vacation photos.  Now you can start to play around with your composition and keeping your subject out of the middle of the photo.

Keep in mind that this…like most other photography rules…can be broken, but it is better to understand the rule enough to know when you can break it.

When I say, “Change your perspective.”  I’m not talking about the way you look at life (that would be a much deeper How-To blog post).  No I am talking about changing your perspective in relation to the angle of your camera when you are taking pics of your kids.  Perspective is a key element of connecting with the subject matter in photography.  Richard Avedon used to photograph most of his subjects with the camera aimed to about the models waist level.  This not only made sure for a proportionate photo (upper body vs. lower body), but it also gave the viewer a unique connection with his subjects.  OK…so what does that mean when you are trying to photograph your 1 or 2 year old?  Try to get down to their eye level.  Being on their level will do several things for your photograph.

• Lets you connect with their eyes at their level rather than them looking up at you.
• The camera sees the world as they do (way down by your ankles).
• Gives a proportionate view of your child at that age.  Rather than taking a photo of you standing above them which will shrink them (this is called perspective control).
• It’s what the pro child photographers do to capture those priceless looks…Get down on their level.

I’m not going to pretend that this is the easiest thing to do because kids are super mobile move quickly and when are 6’2″…like me…it can pose a problem to be mobile when you are crouching or even laying down to get the photo you want.  This is where patience and M&M’s come into play.  Yeah, I know bribing your kids with candy probably isn’t the healthiest thing, but if it means that they stay in one place for more than 3 seconds than I’m all for it.  Of course most of you are probably way more flexible than I am and can probably crouch and duck walk along with your kids…just know that I am extremely jealous of you and no amount of yoga will allow me to do that.  I can imagine what I look like when I am trying to photograph kids…You may not look pretty, but your photos will definitely attract a lot of attention.

Now that you know the rules of perspective you can go and break them.  Yes, there are definitely times when you can bend or break the rules of photography.  You will see this more in the next few weeks.  For example you can break the rule of being on their level by going to another extreme…being directly over them.  This perspective gives you a sense of how little they were at that age and can make for some pretty fun and silly photos.  If you get close up on them and directly above them you will be making their heads large and their bodies small.  That is just one example.  Now I send you off to go play with perspective and getting really low and sometimes even really high up the next time you take some pics of your kids.

Here are a few examples that I have taken over the past few years that show getting down to their eye level.