Tips From A Portrait Photographer

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We all can learn something from portrait photographers to make our selfies and even group photos more appealing. The main ingredient to a good portrait photo is just a dash of imagination. What we want to avoid like the plague is the standard standing facing straight ahead type of shot. This is most unattractive way to photograph anyone including a supermodel.

How Do We Be Creative With Standing Portraits?

Instead of shooting your subject facing directly at the camera ask your subject to twist slightly in either direction. Twist at the waist or move your feet, but face the camera at an angle rather than straight on.

Instead of the standard straight leg look have your subject bend their knee or place one leg over the other leg. For added interest move the legs wider than shoulder length.

Have your model do something with their arms. Straight arms are boring. Have your model put their hands on their hips flaring their elbows out to create a dramatic pose. If you want to get fancy have your model try poses with the arms above their head. Anything but straight boring arms.

Combine a twist at the waist with a bent knee and arms above the head and now you have an interesting photo. Be creative and try different poses. Keep in mind that portrait photographers shoot hundreds of photos to get the few great ones folks swoon over for being great.

Being Creative With Seated Portraits

Just like standing, directly facing the camera portraits, seated directly facing the camera portraits also rank high on the boring list. Again the key is imagination.

If you going to have your subject directly face the camera try having them bend at the waist with their elbows on their knees resting their head in their hands. Perhaps sitting straight up with their legs crossed and their hands on their laps. Maybe legs spread with their hands resting on their knees.

Now if you want to get fancy have your model sit sideways in the chair. Have your model move their legs and arms in interesting positions to mix up the look. Have them lean back and kick one or both legs in the air.

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Don’t be afraid to move the chair from directly facing the camera to slightly sideways, fully sideways, or the chair facing the camera with it’s back. Have your model explore and have fun using the chair as a prop.

Getting Super Creative

Instead of shooting your model at normal eye level try shooting your model from kneeling position or try standing on something stable to achieve a bird’s eye view.

A normal facial expression is a smile. Have your model try growling at the camera, say something funny and click your model in full laughter, or have your model try a mean face to mix things up a bit.

Try tilting the camera or phone slightly to create a visual allusion. Get super close to your model and focus on body parts instead of the full body. Have your model turn away from the camera and look back.

Conclusion

The main idea is to have your model do anything but face the camera with straight arms and legs with the standard smile.

It only takes a moment and a bit of experimenting to create interesting photos. Whether your at a night club or standing in front of scenic view, change things up a bit to create an interesting photo that will have your friends praising you for your photography skills.

Next article: Long Exposure Photography

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How To Get The Best Photos From Your Cell Phone Camera

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People these days take most of their photos with a cell phone. Cell phone cameras over the last couple of years have really improved in quality and can take amazing photos. Listed below are a few tips to improve your cell phone photos

Use Natural Light

Never, ever use your cell phone’s flash. The flash is horribly placed and does a miserable job of providing additional light. Lighting is very important in every photo whether you use a DSLR or a cell phone camera. Try to position your subject in the best possible natural light available.

If you do not have adequate natural light try using the shadows to enhance your photo. Shadows can create interesting natural effects in your photo.

Hold Your Phone Still

Professional photographers use a tripod every chance they can. Bottom line is that you will get better photos if your cell phone is stable. Use a table or a wall to steady your cell phone. Move your subject if possible to allow for a steady surface to secure your cell phone.

Cell phones are tricky to hold onto while taking a photo. Taking a photo requires two hands and a free finger to push the clicking button. All of this manipulation makes it nearly impossible to keep your cell phone steady. Often times a cell phone photographer is left with a slightly out of focus photo.

Consider buying a small tripod or the increasingly popular extending rod holder for your cell phone. Both the tripod and rod will help you steady your cell phone. The extending rod also has a clicking button at the end of the rod to further help with cell phone stability.

Edit Your Photos

Professional photographers never release a photo to the public without some editing. Neither should you. There are many editing apps out there. Snapseed is an easy-to-use photo editing app that is very popular. If you don’t want to spend the money on an app Instragram has pretty good editing capabilities built into is photo sharing system.

When you are using a photo editing app tinker with it a bit to unlock all of its features. Some editing apps offer more features than others and are always improving.

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Every photographer has a different style of editing. That is one of the things that make photography fun. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different cropping styles, exposures, and filters.

There are also a variety of apps that allow for collages. A collage of several photos into one picture can be very interesting.

Realize Your Cell Phone’s Limitations

As good as cell phones are nowadays, they still have limitations. Cell phones struggle with low light, extreme light conditions, and direct light.

In low conditions, as previously discussed, using the cell phones flash is not an option. Unfortunately to shoot decent low light or night photos you will have to upgrade to a DSLR.

In extreme light conditions try using sunspots and flares to your advantage. This is very challenging, but it if you can pull it off it may lead to an interesting photo.

Cell phones struggle with direct sunlight. Try repositioning your subject so the sun is directly at it, but behind you. If you can’t move your subject try moving until the sun is coming from the side instead of directly at you.

Buy A Lens Set

There are several companies that offer lens sets for your cell phone. The lens attaches to your phone and will greatly enhance your photo taking abilities. Types of lens include; macro, wide-angle, fish-eye, super fish-eye, telephoto, and polarizer.

Slap a lens on your phone and you will have a blast and increase the options your cell phone camera has dramatically.

Like DSLR lenses, cell phone lenses vary in price depending on the quality of the lenses. Normally you get what you pay for with lenses. However, for a cell phone camera try a cheaper lens kit and have fun! If you spend a bunch of money on lenses for your cell phone you might want to consider using the money for a DSLR camera.

Summary

Use the tips listed above to greatly enhance your cell phone taking capabilities. Cell phones are taking amazing photos with the advances in technology. Most importantly have fun and enjoy the experience of taking photos that you are happy showing to your friends and family.

Next Article: Taking Better Portraits

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TTS Writer Style Child

Photography Tips: 6 Reasons Photography Sucks Donkey Balls!

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Lets be honest. There are some really sucky things about photography!

First off photography is silly expensive. A person has to be Oprah rich to get some shots. For example those massive, howitzer cannon lenses you see on the sidelines of NFL football games can cost $20,000. This photograph below is captured with middle of the road equipment and even at that I invested about $3,000 to get the shot!

Which leads to my second gripe! To get the photo above I had to get up before sunrise and be in position as the sun was poking over the Sapphire Mountains of Montana. The reason for this is because some sick bugger decided that one of the best times for lighting would be in the early morning. I detest getting up early! If I was king the best light would be after lunch. Then a photographer could sleep in, relax in the morning, get a nice lunch and then worry about capturing the best light!

My third gripe is that evening is also a great time to capture great light. So while I was capturing the shot below my buddies were enjoying themselves during happy hour at the local saloon. By the time I showed up to quench my thirst the cocktails were double the price, all the appetizers were eaten, and my buddy already had a date with the hottie waitress.

My next whine is that if a photographer is going to get up early and stay out late the possibility of getting hot or cold is very good. To get the shot below, I had to get up at 4 a.m. and lay on cold stones with the camera upside down one inch off the ground for about two hours! By the time I got back to my car my teeth were chattering and my nipples were as hard as little erasers!

My fifth whine is that some post shooting work must be done and none of it is fun. To start the tedious editing process I go through the the shots in my camera and conduct a quick edit of the obviously bad clicks. Then I will download the day’s captures on the porn generator and use editing software to do the next levels of editing that can take hours and cause a bloody hemroids from all the sitting.

My final whine and I have more, but I will try to stay positive, is that most of my photos captured are destined for the electronic waste basket. I have done the math over the last couple of years and my success rate of clicks to printable photographs in my critiquing process is about 1 in 50. That is a horrible average and would never win a batting title! For example the capture below requires a long exposure. Long exposure shots are tricky and require a lot of trial and error!

Read more at: http://thethrillsociety.com/photography-tips-6-reasons-photography-sucks-donkey-balls/

Tips From A Portrait Photographer

http://thethrillsociety.com is your link to Thrilling Stuff! This article is just a taste!

We all can learn something from portrait photographers to make our selfies and even group photos more appealing. The main ingredient to a good portrait photo is just a dash of imagination. What we want to avoid like the plague is the standard standing facing straight ahead type of shot. This is most unattractive way to photograph anyone including a supermodel.

How Do We Be Creative With Standing Portraits?

Instead of shooting your subject facing directly at the camera ask your subject to twist slightly in either direction. Twist at the waist or move your feet, but face the camera at an angle rather than straight on.

Instead of the standard straight leg look have your subject bend their knee or place one leg over the other leg. For added interest move the legs wider than shoulder length.

Have your model do something with their arms. Straight arms are boring. Have your model put their hands on their hips flaring their elbows out to create a dramatic pose. If you want to get fancy have your model try poses with the arms above their head. Anything but straight boring arms.

Combine a twist at the waist with a bent knee and arms above the head and now you have an interesting photo. Be creative and try different poses. Keep in mind that portrait photographers shoot hundreds of photos to get the few great ones folks swoon over for being great.

Being Creative With Seated Portraits

Just like standing, directly facing the camera portraits, seated directly facing the camera portraits also rank high on the boring list. Again the key is imagination.

If you going to have your subject directly face the camera try having them bend at the waist with their elbows on their knees resting their head in their hands. Perhaps sitting straight up with their legs crossed and their hands on their laps. Maybe legs spread with their hands resting on their knees.

Now if you want to get fancy have your model sit sideways in the chair. Have your model move their legs and arms in interesting positions to mix up the look. Have them lean back and kick one or both legs in the air.

Don’t be afraid to move the chair from directly facing the camera to slightly sideways, fully sideways, or the chair facing the camera with it’s back. Have your model explore and have fun using the chair as a prop.

Read the rest of the article at: http://thethrillsociety.com/tips-from-a-portrait-photographer/