THE THINGS I DO…

I wrote this for the holiday edition of MyTime magazine. I thought I’d share my top ten list of photo tips for holiday shooting.

1. Turn off the red-eye reduction feature on your camera. Most image editing programs allow you to correct for red-eye, eliminating the need to use this irritating, battery draining, feature.
2. Get close to your subject. Fill the frame with the important, crop out everything else. Shoot like a pro!
3. Hold the camera steady. Most holiday happenings are indoors. Indoor lighting requires slower shutter speeds, increasing the chance of movement and blurred images.
4. Shoot a lot of photos. Your chances of getting a good shot will increase with the number of photos you make.
5. Make sure you have plenty of batteries and memory cards. Nothing’s worse than running out of juice or memory just when things are getting interesting.
6. Keep your camera close at hand. You never know when an interesting photo opportunity will happen — be ready for it.
7. Look for the candid moments instead of trying to pose everything. Don’t orchestrate your photos, go with the flow and shoot what happens in front of your lens.
8. Check your lens for fingerprints. With point-and-shoot cameras, you can’t see what the lens is seeing so you’ll need to check from occasionally to make sure your lens is smudge-free. A clean, microfiber cloth is the ticket for taking care of this chore.
9. When shooting children, work from their level. It’s amazing how this will improve your photos of the kiddies.
10. Share your moments with others. I especially recommend uploading your photos to a computer for use them as a holiday slide show for friends to view when visiting. Digital picture frames work well also.

I hope this list will help make your holiday photography successful.

Enjoy the season,

Dennis

Want to hold your camera for long exposures without having to resort to a flash or tripod? It’s not hard to do once you learn the proper way to hold your camera! The trick is as simple as putting your arms close to your body. As the photo below illustrates, doing this eliminates the “flying elbows” syndrome that is at the root of camera unsteadiness. 

I learned to shoot this way years ago from the late Eddie Adams. He showed me that by simply tucking my elbows into my sides, I could steady myself enough to consistently shoot sharp photos at slow shutter speeds. That one tip has followed me throughout my career. In fact, I can still handhold my camera at shutter speeds as slow as 1/15th of a second! Give it a try and see if it helps your available light shooting. Please post how this tip worked/didn’t work for you!

Part of my job is editing photos submitted by readers who aren’t necessarily photographers. The main flaw I see in their work is photos blurred due to camera motion. A tip I picked up early on in my career can help eliminate a lot of this camera shake. It’s a simple solution, just shoot as you exhale. 

The theory here is that the body is more relaxed and less tense when exhaling a breath. A body that’s in a relaxed state will shake less than one that’s all tensed up. It’s a trick taught to snipers and can apply to shooters with a camera too. Try it for yourself the next time you’re out with your camera. Adjust your exposure to 1/30th of a second or so and shoot a series of photos with your breath held during the exposure and some shot during a slow exhale. Squeeze off your shots while doing both, of course — don’t stab at the shutter release!

I think you’ll see a big difference.