In prior weeks during Top Ten Tuesday, I covered ten tips from the following Savvy Blogging Summit classes: Effective Monetization and Personal Productivity. This week, I want to cover ten great tips from the Photography class, which was taught by David Mejias. (He was such a great teacher, and we all loved listening to him.)
1. Everything in the frame is important! You need to pay attention to everything that shows up in the frame, and if you need to, move things out of the background that you don’t want in the picture.
2. Move around while you’re taking pictures. Try not to take more than just a few pictures from one particular angle before moving to another angle. (Not mentioned during the session, but I’ll just add that it’s great to not just move around in the ways you would normally think to do so. Stand on stools, crouch down, try unique angles.)
3. Edges are important – crop deliberately (not by accident). For example, in this picture of my fruit loop rice krispie treats, I purposefully only took a picture of part of the plate and let the rest of the plate fall out of the frame. David said that that’s great – as long as it’s deliberate. Don’t let these kinds of things happen accidentally, just because you weren’t paying attention or thinking of the whole frame. You have 4 sides of a photo, think about where they are falling.
4. If your camera has a hot shoe, one of the best investments you can make is an external flash (here is an example of what an external flash is that is compatible with some Canon cameras and here is one that is compatible with some Nikon cameras). Even if you have an inexpensive point and shoot camera, you might have a hot shoe, so take a look!
5. If you have an external flash, don’t point it directly at your photograph’s subject. It is best to bounce it off a wall or the ceiling (or maybe even a white foam core board). I actually found out that David and I both use the Lightsphere by Gary Fong as a diffuser (though I’m sure he probably uses other things as well). He also mentioned things like diffusers by Lumiquest.
6. Develop a point of view. You have developed a writing voice, try to develop your photography voice on your blog.
7. Consider doing a theme for your photos each month, such as all black and white or pictures of green things.
8. Use a flash when shooting outdoors on sunny days. Although it sounds like the exact opposite of what you should do, using a flash on a bright day can help to get rid of harsh shadows that can happen on a very sunny day.
9. Readers know visually what is a stock photo. It takes away from your blogging voice if you use stock photos instead of your own. David suggests using your own photographs, even if they aren’t as good.
10. David talked a lot about aperture, shutter speed, and other more manual features of camera. Although he didn’t mention the book Understanding Exposure (by Bryan Peterson) in class, I tweeted about it during class. (So, that counts as happening in the class, right?) Anyway, I wanted to pass along the book, as I found it invaluable in understanding more about photography and how a camera really works.
This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Awesome! Lovin’ your posts about the summit and THIS one is one I really need! I’m such a wannabe…not even a good wannabe photographer!
oh amanda´s last [type] ..The Reluctant Breastfeeder- Top Ten Tuesday
@oh amanda,
Thanks so much, Amanda! Your encouragement has been what has kept me very focused on making sure I keep writing about tips from the conference.
I actually really like the photos on your blog. While I’m bad and use stock photos (or flickr), I like that your pictures are YOURS. It helps me (and all of your readers) better know you, and that’s what blogging is really about.
I need to get better about including photos in my posts. Photos often help me decide which posts to read in my reader, so I’m assuming the same is true for my subscribers… I need to use photos to grab their attention!
Ashley´s last [type] ..Encouragement for Christian Bloggers
I wish I knew more about external flashes and the such. This year I bought a Nikon D3000, my first DSLR. I think I have taken some really cool pictures, but would love to learn some more tech stuff, preferably for free. Any good place to go to learn all this stuff??
Samantha´s last [type] ..Week 5
@Samantha,
Samantha – I know it’s not free, but for around $15, I think the book that I mentioned in #10 is an awesome resource. It goes over major aspects of photography in depth, but in a way that was also very understandable. Some things I had read about over and over, and as soon as I read his examples, I thought, “Oh! Now I get it!”
@Angie, Thanks, I will go look it up!
Samantha´s last [type] ..Week 5
Thanks for sharing these — I’ve got “Understanding Exposure” but haven’t really sat down and focused on figuring it all out yet. I hadn’t even considered an external flash — cool!
Heather´s last [type] ..Hello world!
Great tips! Thanks!
And you’re invited to Of Such is the Kingdom’s first birthday blog bash! We’re digging up old posts and giving out tons of prizes. Come on over!
suchakingdom.blogspot.com
Olivia´s last [type] ..Old Recipes Still Partying!
Sounds like a great talk!
I have to 2nd “Understanding Exposure” it really helped me get to understand things I wasn’t getting. Check and see if your library has a copy.
And if you don’t have external flash you can use a reflector, which is are cheaper and can even be handmade.
Kristal´s last [type] ..I really should stop……
Angie – I don’t suppose he talked about whether or not to watermark your photos or how to do it?
I see this, but I don’t know how to do it. I noticed on my stat counter that sometimes my photos get downloaded (don’t know why – I’m certainly not a pro!), and it makes me wonder.
What do you think?
Deb´s last [type] ..First Day of School Report
@Deb,
I didn’t remember anything about it, Deb, so I went back and looked at the power point presentation and didn’t see any mention of it on there. He might have said something in the actual presentation, but I just don’t remember. I already watermark mine (mostly), so I might not have written it down if he did.
Personally – I would say watermark them. But, do so in a portion of the picture so that it doesn’t really detract from the photograph, but that will be difficult to crop out.