Subjects Covered:  Cutting down on Camera Shake; How many pictures on a card?; Composing your shot

Cutting Down on Camera Shake: 

• Hold the camera firmly in both hands and close to your body
• If your Camera has an eye piece, use it
• Keep the strap around your wrist or neck
• Take a wide stance
• Make yourself into a tripod.  Feet wide apart, elbows tucked in.

 How many pictures on a card?: 

• For more dynamic images, set your memory chip to shoot fewer, higher quality images
• Larger pictures allow for cropping and zooming
• Turn off LCD for battery preservation
• Be sure to use photographic batteries
• Back up images for safety
• Once images are transferred to your computer, reformat the card in your camera
• Leave the camera untouched while it is downloading pictures

Composing your Shot: 

• Vertical orientation for vertical subjects
• Fill the frame
• Watch the background
• Capture images of people interacting with the environment and having fun
• “You Were There” photos should tell a story
• Watch the horizon and be sure the image is level

Lights, Camera, Action

Subjects Covered:  Telling Your Story through Pictures; Ins & Outs of Natural Light; Flash or No Flash; Composing your Shot; Improving Focal Point; Combating shadows outdoors; Rule of Thirds.

Putting People in a Picture: 

• Have a reason for the person being there
• Interact with the environment
• Good way to show scale
• Indoors photograph people without flash near a window with good light

To Combat Shadows

• Turn on Your Flash outdoors
• Move subject into the shade
• Shoot from an angle
• Use a diffuser on your flash attachment
• Use a photo editing program
• Learn how to turn your Flash off and on

Rule of Thirds: 

• Draw a tic tac toe grid in your mind and put your subject where two lines cross
• Top left junction is stronger, bottom right junction is weaker

Focal Point Technique:

• Identify your subject, then focus on it
• Use your “f” stop to control depth of field
• Lower numbers are shallow depth of field i.e. 4.0 or 5.6
• Higher numbers are deeper, i.e. 16 or 22
• Use your spot meter to identify your subject

Mirror, Mirror

Subjects Covered:  Preventing unwanted reflections; Grab shots from a car or bus; Histograms; High Dynamic Range

 Preventing unwanted reflections

• Turn off your flash
• Look for unwanted reflections
• Put your lens close to the window
• Shoot from an angle

 Effective  reflections

• Look for reflections that add to the story quality
• Look for reflections that add balance and color
• Be sure you have catch lights in eyes of people and animals
• Look for reflections in water, windows,  and shiny objects

 Grab shots from a car or bus

• Increase ISO  
• Increase Shutter Speed
• Try burst mode
• Use a photo editing program

Histogram: 

• A graphical representations of the highlights and shadows in your image
• If pixels are all bunched at one end, reset the camera and reshoot the image
• Make sure that the highlights and/or shadows do not blow out by spiking at the edges

High Dynamic Range:

• Set AEB to +/-2
• Set to Aperture Priority
• Set camera mode to burst
• Use a photo editing program such as Photomatix to process the pictures

A Stitch in Time

Subjects Covered:  Panoramas; ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed; Camera Modes; Digital Makeup; 10 % Thinner

Panoramas

• Best to use a tripod    
• If hand held, be certain to stay level, use a horizon if possible
• Overlap each shot by about 1/3
• Identify the beginning and end of your panorama series
• Aperture Priority (AV) with a 22 depth of field is usually best for landscapes
• Identify a place in the scene with average light
• Lock in the identified place each time before shooting the next segment
• Use a computer program, or your cameras stitching ability

Relationship among ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed

• Increase ISO in low light
• Understand the trade off between more light and noise
• You need higher ISO if hand holding the camera
• You need higher ISO if the subject is moving
• Add natural light, or flash if necessary          

Camera Modes: 

• Portrait Mode – foreground subject in sharp focus; Large aperture to blur background
• Landscape Mode – Background object in sharp focus; Smaller Aperture
• Night Scene Mode – Uses flash and slow shutter speed.  More light enters the camera
• Macro Mode – Used for extreme close ups.  More control of camera focus
• Sports/Action Mode – Used for motion; Faster shutter speed with smaller aperture
• Auto Mode – Camera does everything automatically
• Program Mode – Camera does most, but you can manually override some settings
• Shutter Priority Mode – You adjust shutter speed; good for portraits, or landscapes.  Allows you to control Camera Shake
• Aperture Priority Mode – You adjust aperture; good for portraits or landscapes. 
  Allows you to control depth of field
• Shutter Priority Mode – Good for action, or out of a bus window

10% Thinner

• In Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, Open the image you want to make thinner.
• Control “J” to duplicate the layer.  Select the top layer.
• Control “T” to transform the layer
• In the W: field above the image, reduce 100.0% to 90% and click on the check mark
• Flatten the image and then crop it to eliminate the duplication on the sides

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