Take Better Photos

by Catherine L. Tully

As we march into the holidays, why not take a bit of time to improve your photography skills? Grab your digital camera and head over to the family celebration to try and brush up on things such as composition and setting your subject at ease. HP offers a few photography tips for how to avoid common mistakes such as red eye and underexposed photographs. Work at this time of the year tends to be on the slow side, but it doesn’t mean you can’t use the time to get a bit ahead.

Purchasing A Digital Camera

If you are looking for a good digital camera but aren’t sure what to buy, try checking out the reviews here on CNET. Compare features, get ratings and find out what is in your price range. Do your homework and find a camera that will take pictures that look good enough to publish with your articles. That way you’ll be able to make more money–as well as be in demand!

Photography Magazines

If you are interested in taking your own photos to accompany the articles that you write, one of the best things you can do is invest in a magazine subscription. You can read up on techniques and gear as well as get terrific tips that will help you take better pictures.

There are many photography mags out there, so deciding which one to choose can be a little difficult. You can always go to the bookstore and browse, but you can also take a look at this list for an idea of what the various publications cover. I get several, including Outdoor Photographer, American Photo and Popular Photography. Each has its own niche, and I learn a good deal of information from them. The more you can learn, the better your chances are of getting quality photos to go with your articles.

Tips For Taking Portraits

So you’ve gotten an assignment and want to try your hand at taking a picture of a particular person for the article. If you aren’t really a photographer yet, how do you go about gettting a good shot? Here are a few tips that are based on my own experience:

• Natural light is generally the most flattering, so take a picture outside if you can. Just make sure that the sun isn’t casting weird shadows on the person’s face.
• Get the person to relax a bit before taking the photo. Talk to them about hobbies, kids, etc. If they are tense, it will show in the picture.
• Take tons of different shots. You never know which one you’ll wind up using.
• Try different angles. Do full length shots and closeups. Variety is important.
• Count down so that they know when you’ll be snapping the picture.
• Look at the review screen to see if the person’s eyes are open. (This is assuming you have a digital camera.)
• Don’t get too close or the camera will not focus.
• Watch your background. Try to avoid things such as trees growing out of the person’s head or a lot of distracting clutter.

There is no reason you shouldn’ t be able to take a photo like this, so give it a go! Here are some more tips for shooting portraits to help round things out. Remember, confidence is key, so don’t let on that you’re a novice!

Apogee Photo Magazine

Writers….if you are interested in learning more about photography, check out Apogee Photo. This online photo mag has a host of helpful articles and information for all levels–whether you are a beginner or have been at it for a while. Learn more about travel photography, or get some pointers for starting out. The best part is, you can do this right from your computer. Take a break from writing and invest a little time in photography–it’s a great skill to pick up for the New Year!

Photography: Know Your Rights

This is a “quickie”….

If you take photos for your articles — or if you want to start doing so, you might get hassled when taking them in a public place. Do you know what your rights are? You’d better! Look here for the skinny in the US, and here for info on rights in the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Now, armed with that information, go forth and conquer!

Is There A Rookie At The Keyboard?

Regardless of whether you are a newbie or seasoned pro you can find some good information here. This resource, put out by the Naval Safety Center, gives great tips on a wide range of subjects that are of value to writers. Here are some titles of the individual pages:

• How To Tell A Rookie Is At The Keyboard
• To Cut Or Not To Cut
• What Makes A Photo Effective
• Making The Most Of Verbs

Although this is geared for writers who work for their publications, it offers terrific advice!

Photography 101

If you need some information about photography, you are likely to find it here. Professional Photography 101 has a ton of articles and information about the subject, and you can spend hours looking through all they have to offer. Read up. Learn. Get qualified to make more $$$~!

Photography For The Writer: How To Send Digital Files

OK. So you have gotten the assignment and you are going to try your hand at taking photos yourself–but you have a major issue–how do you send in the files? If you are new to this type of thing, here’s a little help:

• First and foremost, ask the editor to send you photo specs and how they want the files sent. Here you may hear terms such as dpi (dots per inch) and photo dimensions.
• Some editors like to get a CD or DVD of the photos. It is worth your time to learn how to do this, and it isn’t too difficult to learn if you have a burner in your computer. Investigate what your capabilites are so that you know what you can deliver.
• Some editors will ask you to upload your photo files to an FTP server. For this you will generally need a web address, user name and password. Getting the files on the server is very simple and usually a matter of just opening them and uploading. FTPs are all just a bit different but I’ve never had one that was too complex.
• Some editors will ask you to e-mail the photos. If this is the case, don’t shrink the files down too much. Refer to the photo specifications before sending. This can get complicated if you aren’t photo savvy, so it may be easier to send a CD or DVD if you don’t have a photo editing program or decent digital camera.
• Large files can be zipped and sent via e-mail as well. I’ve never done this, but basically it means that the files will go through e-mail because they are temporarily compressed. WinZip and YouSendIt are sites that offer this type of thing.

Now. You absolutely need to know a bit about your camera. Make sure you are taking photos on the higest quality setting. You should be able to find out how to do this by reading your manual. (We will have more info about what kinds of cameras work well for beginning writers later on, so keep your eyes peeled…)

There is more to this in terms of learning how to tell what dpi your photos are and re-sizing photos, but this should at least give you an idea of how files can be sent. We’ll have more coming on this subject as we go along…but this should help prepare you for your first conversation!

Photo above: Copyright 2008, Catherine L. Tully

Photonhead

 For those of you who are trying to make headway on the digital camera front; this is for you. Photonhead will give you some information on things such as buying a camera, controlling flash, camera modes and more. Browse around–you’re likely to learn something useful!

If you learn how to take your own photos–you can really add to your income. Big time. Take my word for it!

Photography Tips From Fodor’s

Get some good photography tips from the experts at Fodor’s. Their site has quite a few helpful links and they are specific; things such as: exposure and metering modes, creative camera filters and controlling depth of field. This is a great beginner resource for taking better pictures.

Smithsonian And More…

Add this to your list of resources….Encyclopedia Smithsonian offers a super search on a wide range of subjects, both general and specific. Want to know more about the Hope Diamond? What about photography? Why wait? It’s all here at your fingertips…

Dictionary Of Photographic Terms

Are you a writer who is trying to get into photography? Some people find that the world of digital photography is filled with definitions and words that they don’t know. That can make reading directions or following instructions extremely difficult in the beginning. Learn more about the terminology here.

Once you know how to provide photography for your articles, you will add another layer to your money-making ability. I highly recommend it.

Photography For Writers: 10 Tips

Kodak has some great tips for those who are just getting started in photography. Learn things such as:

• How to use your flash

• How to frame things for a good shot

• How to focus well

And more…

A great place to start for beginners. Don’t cheat yourself out of making some extra money from your articles. If you don’t know how to do take good photos to accompany your work, now is the time to get started! These basic tips are easy to navigate and will get you on the right road.

Photography Info: The Luminous Landscape

The Luminous Landscape is a good place to go for the lowdown on photography. You can browse the categories endlessly and find information on everything from “how to photograph car races” to “bullfight photography”. Too specific? Well don’t panic….there are some great basics as well. There are more than 3,000 pages of product reviews, tutorials, travel articles and photographs here, so you are bound to find something that can help you out. If you are a freelancer who hopes to do photos this is a super place to get started.