Pics Can Talk

Okay, smile and say “Cheese”!

I won’t be surprised if you have heard this said so many times before in the past. But, do realise that most of the time just having “Cheese” won’t make a perfect portrait picture. All you would end up with is a picture of a person saying “cheese”, and it was really just the “cheese” that made the smile.

Let’s look at what else you should be working on to get a more impressive portrait. Work on this more and soon enough you would be doing it by heart.

The Expression

Let’s look at the face first. Our face is the most memorable part of our body. The most important focus of a portrait picture is the face of a person. For a majority of your shots, you probably would ask your subject to smile when you take their picture. Because a smile is so complex, it is sometimes very easy to tell if your subject is not smiling for real. That’s what I meant when I said “cheese” don’t work most of the time.

Now, you would need your subject to be relaxed. Tell them something funny. If you know your subject, it would even be easier to get them at ease. When it’s time to press that shutter button, crack a joke. That should get all the facial smile muscles working. Relaxing your subject also make them more inclined to have their pictures taken. Believe it or not, there are people who get more tensed when they are taking pictures.

Take note that not all your shots need to be of your subject smiling. Other expressions may break that monotony of smiles and add a little extra interest to your collection of pictures. Catch your subject in all sorts of funny expressions and yes, even an angry expression can be funny and interesting to behold.

The Pose

After the face, the pose and body positioning is the next most important element of a portrait shot. It would be quite straightforward if you take a straight frontal picture of your subject standing with his or her arms down the sides. This is the type of pose most people would naturally take.

Your subject may not be a model but it would make your picture more interesting if you could get your subject to pose in a relaxed manner. Try to use the elements around your subject to have the pose as natural as possible. Your subject could lean on the edge of a balcony or a high cupboard. Perhaps there is a nice chair that he or she can sit down on. Instead of putting their arms down the sides, have them hold onto a pillar or simply just laid across their chest.

I could go on and on about the many different types of poses there is but the best is really for you to be creative. To get some ideas, you could even flip through many fashion magazines and see how professional models do it.

The Scene

The scene or the background really depends on what you are shooting your subject for. If the purpose is to focus just on your subject, take the picture against an uncluttered background such as against the sky, a plain wall or in a wide open space. This leaves out distracting elements in your picture, and you end up with a nice clean shot of your subject.

If the purpose is to shoot your subject against a nice background, make sure that there is adequate lighting for your subject or the background to make a good picture. If your subject is standing in the shadow, use fill-in flash to light up the shadows. Set it manually if your camera doesn’t activate the flash automatically.

If you are taking a shot of your subject in a occupational background, get them to pose in their natural state, at work. This type of shot tells you a little something about the person and what he or she does for a living. Alternatively, this could be applied to scenes in a playground, at home, or on a holiday.

Composition

In our August 2004 issue, I talked about composition. With portraits, composition is even more important as you will be taking the picture of your subject close up. Even the “Rules of Thirds” can apply here. A general rule of thumb is to make sure the eyes of your subject is on the top two thirds of your photograph.

A horizontal format is usually used when you are shooting a picture of your subject against an interesting background. Try using the “Rules of Thirds” here also to place your subject in the picture.

A vertical (or Portrait format) is the most common type of composition used for a picture portrait. A very tight close-up of your subject’s face creates a very strong and impactful image. With this type of shot, make sure you focus your camera on the eyes.

A head and shoulder portrait still keeps the focus on your subject’s eyes but allow for a little more body expression and poses. Try experimenting with different angles when taking this type of shot such as turning your body 45 degrees but keeping your head faced forward.

A full length portrait reveals the entire facial and body expressions of a person. Try and get your subject relaxed so he or she may be free to pose in a manner they may be more comfortable with.

When you take a picture of your subject against nice background, a general tip is to make sure your subject fill up at least a 1/3 portion of your picture frame so he or she don’t look too small in the picture. Leave 2/3 of the picture for the background. In this case, the background could be a building or scenery. Of course this is not a steadfast rule and there is room to be creative with your compositions.

The Group Photo

When taking a picture of a group, firstly make sure that they fill up your picture. To do this, consider different heights for your subjects such as having some of them sit on chairs or squatted on the ground. If they all need to be standing, be aware of each person’s height and rearrange them according to their height, the centre being the tallest, to have a well balanced picture composition.

Wherever possible, try and create a links between your subjects such as putting arms on each other’s shoulders or hand on the back of the chair so that they look like they all belong in the picture together.

There is also a higher possibility that someone in the group may not be ready for the shot or accidentally closed their eyes for the shot. Therefore, always take more than one shot of a group.

Babies and Small Children

Some people may say that it is not easy to take pictures of babies and especially of small children, but the opposite is true. Children exude innocence in everything that they do, and the pictures usually reveal their true self rather than being a posed picture.

Babies who are too young to understand what you are doing with a camera are generally very easy to shoot. The best type of picture is of the babies smiling or laughing and you can do this by playing with him or her before you take the shot.

Pictures of toddlers and young children are best taken in their natural environment ie, a children’s park, in playschool with other children or in their own bedroom among their toys. This type of picture tells a story about the child and depicts their true age.

Don’t take pictures of a child for a long period of time as they their attention span is short and they tend to get bored easily. Make each photography session short and quick. After a while the child will get used to having their pictures taken and will naturally smile or pose for the camera.

If you are using a digital camera, show them the picture. This would usually excite the child to want to take more photos.

As it is the holiday season, I know most of you will be taking a lot of portrait shots of loved ones this season. Remember the tips that I have mentioned above and may you end up with a lot of cherished photos and of course wonderful memories. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Traveling is one word that excites many. The core reason of traveling on vacation is to enjoy and see unique sights away from home, and most of us can’t get enough of it even when we have to come back to our real life. And so, what do we do? We record our memorable trips on our cameras. Indeed travel photography is where we use our cameras the most.

Planning for your next holiday? Read on to see how you can bring back more memories and interesting shots within a travel album which you would be proud to show to all your friends.

Recording Images

When we are on a trip, our eyes record every interesting element, storing it in a special area of our brain. When you see something interesting, be aware of how it makes you feel and then remember to take a picture at the same point. It’s good to make a strong impression of the feeling as when you look back at the pictures from your trip, your mind will instantly bring up the same feeling. It’s is as if you are revisiting the place.

Don't Spare on Your Shots

One point I always tell friends is not to be stingy with taking shots while traveling. Remember, that you may be taking a once in a lifetime trip, so for goodness sake, take as many shots as you feel you need. If you can spend on souvenirs, surely a few extra roll of films or larger capacity memory cards would be worth buying.

With digital cameras nowadays, you can delete and retake shots right at the very same spot. If you are unsure whether to take or not, just take the shot.

Sometimes bad shots or candid ones make excellent pictures and are worth a laugh. Not every shot in your travel album need to be posed or perfect. Otherwise you may just end up with a boring set of “normal” pictures.

Use Your Still Camera Like a Video Camera

Yes, you may have a video camera handy when you are taking pictures of your family having fun. However, do realize that you would most probably be showing off your photographs more than your video camera after your trip. With this in mind, use your still camera like a video camera. Take a sequence of pictures of the activities. Switch on the “multi-shot” function on your camera if you have one. Then when you put these pictures into your album, place them side by side to show “movements” rather than just a still shot.

Tell A Story

It is widely known that Japanese tourists take their cameras with them almost everywhere they go and they can’t help but take pictures of almost everything. Perhaps they may have the right idea.

Make your trip into a story. Start every point of your journey with a title. This means when you arrive at a tourist destination, find the name of the location on any signboard and take a picture of it. This will be the first picture in the picture collection. Then, as you proceed with your visit, take pictures along the way at “checkpoints” (ie entrances, ticket counters, refreshment counter, getting onto a tourist tram).

Your tour pictures will almost be like a comic strip storyboard and making it even more interesting and meaningful for friend and family flipping through your album.

Shooting Reality

Don’t just take shots of tourists’ spots. In between these, look around you and discover “real-life”. Tourists’ spots would most probably have been “made-up” for tourists but more interesting shots can be had if you look around you. Take pictures of the locals and what they are doing. It is interesting to see and think about how different the foreign culture is to your own as well as the lifestyle of the people.

Vary Your Shots

Mix your shots. In addition to taking scenery shots, take shots from up-close when there is an interesting design or object. This allows you not just to have pictures from a distance but also near to highlight the details of the design or object.

Some Do's & Don'ts for your Trip

1) Don’t rush when you pack your equipments (you might forget something)

2) Bring along your battery charger and camera tripod

3) If possible pack a backup camera (better safe than sorry)

4) Never leave your camera unattended

5) Be wary of passing your camera to a stranger to take a photograph

6) Keep your camera dry in a weatherproof bag

So, enjoy your next trip and make sure your memories and pictures will be things that you will cherish and be proud of!

Some of you may have had the childhood fascination of looking through a magnifying glass and discovering this strange world of the small and tiny. We are so used to seeing things in our normal field of vision that we pass by things which we take for granted. Well, ever thought about “stopping and smelling the flowers”? While you are at it, take some really cool macro or close-up shots?

Compact digital cameras benefit from the fact that they have really close focusing range. On some cameras you can focus down to 1cm from the subject. That’s why almost all new cameras come with a “macro” mode.

WHAT MAKES IT SO INTERESTING?

Firstly, it is actually interesting to look at something at a different angle and close-up. It shows a world that is unknown to us in revealing minute patterns, shapes, colours, textures and structures.

Secondly, by going close-up, you are actually eliminating distractions by other objects and creating an image purely of the subject. This creates a powerful expression and a bold, beautiful image of the object.

If you get your picture printed (maybe even up to 8R or 10R sizes) your viewer would be able to enjoy looking at the subject of your picture from a comfortable distance rather than peering through a magnifying glass.

When I am not away on a photographic expedition, I get to do small close-up photography projects right at home with the things available around me. This adds variety to the types of shots I take.

TIPS FOR SOME COOL CLOSE-UPS

Get Down On Your Knees.

Yes, getting down on your knees is a good way to start. Sometimes great close-up opportunities are just right next to your feet. Some examples to begin with are seashells on a beach, blades of grass, wildflowers, an insect perched on a plant, colourful pebbles, water droplets and the list goes on.

Spare a little time from looking at the entire scenery to look at the small things which form parts of the whole surrounding. Having these types of shots gives a set of pictures more variety.

Look for Unique Shapes and Colours

Mother Nature has a knack for creating some really interesting shapes out of plants, insects and natural formations. Look out for what catches your eye. If need be, carry a magnifying glass with you on your hunt.

Consider the colour contrast between your subject and the background. A strong contrast between your subject and a clean background makes your subject stand out more.

Get Creative with Stuffs around You

Look around you right at this moment. Everything around you can be shot close-up. You are only limited by how creative you can be. Try close-up of a piece of fabric, corners of a stamp, textures on a wood surface, weaving on a basket, a digital circuit board and lots more endless possibilities.

Take Your Time

Don’t rush in taking a close-up shot. Sometimes, you may just miss the obvious and the opportunity to get a good shot. For example, you need to take your time when taking shots of insects as sudden movements will scare your subject. A good tip is to watch that your shadow do not surprise the insect.

Don’t use your flash

For extreme close-ups a camera’s built-in flash is virtually useless. The very short distance between the camera and subject means that your subject is most likely to be overexposed by the flash.

Professional SLR cameras have special macro lighting used to illuminate close-up subjects. Make sure you have enough lighting or you may have to give a little more distance between your camera and the subject to get a good exposure.

Use a Tripod

Getting close-up means high magnification which also means any movement or camera shake is magnified. If you do not have adequate lighting to prevent this try setting your camera on a higher ISO setting or use a tripod.

Remember to Compose!

Even though you are shooting close-up sometimes with virtually minimal background, you need to remember to compose your shots properly. Most of the time, you would have your subject placed right in the middle of the frame. But, take into consideration the shapes and lines on your subject and how it would look in various compositions (Check out our August 2004 issue on Composition Rules). Even the Rules of Thirds can apply effectively here.

HERE’S SOMETHING YOU CAN TRY AT HOME

If you have a subject such as a flower and you are not sure what type of background you can take its picture with, try making your own background.

1) Simply print out an A4 sized picture of a suitable scenery.

2) Place it upright on a table.

3) Position your subject so that it is in front of the “background” picture.

4) Make sure you have adequate lighting for this.

5) Set your camera on “macro” and compose your picture with the A4 picture covering the background.

6) And shoot.

The shallow Depth of Field (DOF) would sufficiently blur the background enough to create a soft background against the sharp close-up shot of your subject.

Great photographers make great pictures simply because they have perfected the art of looking at things in a unique way and are able to convey it so effectively that we see it the same way they do. Don’t just look at the big and obvious, find uniqueness in the small and intricate. It helps to take a little break from the hubbub of daily life and look at the little things that make up the big picture. Have fun and happy shooting!

This time we look at one of the most useful feature you have on your camera, the flash. Surprisingly we almost always take this feature for granted, thinking that all there is to it is to switch it on and off whenever we need it or don’t. Well, this month, I’ll share some tips with you on how you can effectively use your flash.

Most of us would have the standard flash unit built-in on our (digital) camera. Of course if you have moved on to a prosumer (digital) SLR camera, then you may already know about the different ways of using an external flash. This set-up gives you the versatility of using bounce flash and a more powerful flash output. But this month we’ll focus on the compact digicam.

Understanding Your Camera’s Built-in Flash

We are most familiar with the usage of flash at times when there is not enough light to take a good picture. Set on Auto, your camera would compensate by adjusting shutter speed and aperture to light up and give you the best exposure for your subject. It is also the most portable lighting equipment that you will ever have.

On a standard camera, your flash unit has 4 settings, namely “On”, “Off”, “Auto” and “No Red-Eye”. “On” and “Off” is quite obvious, allowing you manual control in switching the flash on and off. “Auto” setting lets your camera choose to activate the flash depending on lighting conditions. The “No Red-Eye” setting prevents red-eye effect on your subject caused by the flash illuminating the blood vessels at the back of the eye and bouncing it back to the lens. Almost all cameras do this by activating an initial flash which shrinks your subject’s pupils before taking the actual shot.

Let There be Light

Okay, on with the tips. Here are a list of things you would use your flash for apart from just illuminating the scene.

1) Light up shadows

One of the most useful times to use flash is when natural light is at its brightest. This is when harsh shadows are created on your subject. Because of the amount of light, your camera would not automatically switch on your flash; therefore you would have to do it manually. The resulting flash will light up the shadow areas on your subject giving you a more balanced shot.

2) Put a sparkle in her eyes

Sometimes even when natural light is enough, consider using the flash to give a sparkle in your subject’s eyes. This also lights up your subject’s face resulting in a livelier look.

3) Flash in a night scene

When you are taking a picture of your subject against a night scene with the normal flash setting, you would probably end up with your subject brightly exposed by your flash and little else of the background. Most new digicam have “Night-Scene/Mode” setting on them. This means the camera uses flash along with a slow shutter speed. Use this to illuminate your subject and at the same time enough lighting from the scene will be captured by your camera.

4) Freeze the moment

Using your flash is also a great way to freeze motion. What happens when you are faced with low lighting condition and you have a moving object to capture? Use your flash for a burst of light to freeze your subject. Your shot is then less likely to result in blurring. You could even try using “Night-Scene/Mode” and panning (using your camera’s viewfinder to track your subject) to create nice effect. This allows you to capture your subject sharp against a motion-blurred background.

5) Improve contrast and saturating colours

Low ambient lighting results in poorly lit low contrast images. Use your flash to improve the contrast level of the object you are shooting. This also brightens and increases the colour saturation of your picture. You will have to trigger your flash manually to do this.

When Not to Use Your Flash

Okay, in getting to know when to use your flash, you should also know when not to use it.

1) When your subject is out of range

Most built-in flash have an effective range of approximately up to 10ft or 3m. If your subject is standing beyond this range, either move closer to your subject or switch off your flash and use a slower shutter speed setting. On your digicam you can also use a higher ISO setting to capture your subject at a higher shutter speed.

2) When you are taking a pleasant and usually warm ambience.

If you want to effectively take the pleasant nature of a scene that is lit by warm lighting such as candle light, don’t use flash if it is possible. However, make sure you have enough ambient lighting to prevent underexposure or blurring due to movements. A tripod is best used here.

3) When you are shooting a reflective surface

Shooting with the flash on and directly in front of a reflective object is a sure way of ruining your picture. This includes shooting through a window or between metal bars or fencing. The reflection from your flash will bounce off the shiny surface and right back to the lens resulting in a blurred highlight. If you have no other choice, try shooting from an angle to avoid reflections.

4) No flash photography allowed

Some places like museums, art gallery, or specialty zoos do not allow flash photography. Here using a slower shutter speed coupled with a tripod or simply switch your camera to a higher ISO setting.

Personally, I almost always keep my flash on. The added highlight created by the flash on my subject is a good ingredient in creating a brighter and livelier shot. Practice on having a good eye on observing lighting conditions around you. Eventually you will be able to predict how your flash will work in different conditions without having to do a double-take. So, go ahead, flash it!

Gone are the days where you hurriedly take pictures of friends and unintentionally chop off their heads and only realizing it after you get your pictures back from the lab. Either we all have become better photographers in this modern day and age or perhaps it is due to the wonders of digital photography, where all it takes is a press of the little magical “Delete” button and all your photography woes come to an end. In any case, somewhere along the way, we realise that our photo album has become the all too familiar boring set of normal “straight on”, “flat”, “uninspiring” images. Now think, Composition.

Composition is the way in which a photographer conveys the story and meaning of the photograph. It is really a diverse subject to dwell into, but you may realise that it will be brought up very frequently in relation to other subjects of photography.

Here we briefly explain the basic principle of composition, which will help towards you composing a pleasing picture. After which, hopefully you’ll be using less of the “Delete” button.

The Rule of Thirds

The “Rule of Thirds” is one of the very basic guideline in composition. Many have preached it as a hard and steadfast rule of photography, and it has been proven to work.

Visualise 2 horizontal lines and 2 vertical lines splitting your picture into 9 segments, when you are taking a shot. If you are taking a picture of landscape, compose your picture so that the horizon falls on either one of the horizontal lines. That means the sky perhaps taking one third of the top of your picture and the ground, two thirds. Or when you are taking a picture of a person standing in front of a nice background, compose your subject so he or she is standing along one of the vertical lines.

In the subject of landscape above, this sort of composition ensures a pleasing image with no two elements, ie the sky and ground, fighting for attention. You either give focus to a dramatic sky or a feature full foreground. And in the matter of taking the shot of a person, your picture would not look flat, by just placing your subject right in the middle of the picture. It provides you with a little more diversity to work with.

A point to note is that, most rules were meant to be broken. Although, perhaps nine out of ten times you get a good picture with this rule, don’t let that stop you from creating some dynamic shots by composing creatively. After all, what governs the picture is really the subject itself, which may be interpreted in different compositions.

Horizontal or Vertical?

Horizontal format is widely used for landscape photography for the simple reason of getting a panoramic and sweeping view of the entire scenery. It is somewhat a pleasing composition where you can see everything in relation to the object next to it. A vertical format is usually used for strong emphasis on a particular subject. It is a more dynamic format where you would use a strong foreground image to lead your eye into the picture.

Horizontal or vertical format may not really be just the way your subject is positioned. Just because you are taking a full body shot of a person, doesn’t mean you have to take a vertical shot. A horizontal shot coupling your subject with an interesting background may work just as well if you position your subject well. Of course, in the end if you are unsure, take both and make your choice from the final outcome.

Perspective

Still photography is basically taking a three dimensional surrounding and putting it into a two dimensional form, which is your picture. One way to give your picture depth is to use perspective. Although the end result is still a two dimensional picture, but your brain converts that into 3D.

Converging lines such as roads, a line of trees, sides of buildings, lampposts sets a path which will lead your viewers’ eyes into the picture. As such, it does not only create depth but also a sense of motion.

Use the wideangle setting on your camera to the best effect when taking a strong perspective picture. Always be aware of your foreground which is an important starting point as you lead into the main subject of your picture.

When composing your picture, it is important to remember the basic principles of composition. But, to adhere to the rules really depends on you. With practice, composing a picture should come so natural that, it will be like almost driving a car, where you don’t really have to think about it, but just drive.

So, having fiddled with your new toy, by now you would have taken that photo of your girlfriend or boyfriend posing with their hands placed on their hips, your little baby’s smile, a friend huffing and puffing to blow out a candle on a cake, you would also have probably asked a bunch of people say “cheese” many times over to get them to give you a genuine smile on your photo and pulled your camera out a couple of times for the occasional fun snapshot of a “teh tarik” session. Perhaps now it’s earning a well-deserved spot on the shelf among the rest of your decorative items.

Is that all there is to it? Okay, let’s look at your approach to photography. You may have bought that little snapshot digital camera to take all the special occasion mentioned above. Of course you couldn’t be bothered to go through the pages and pages of manual describing the little features and tweaks on your camera. The most common setting your camera would be on is “Full Auto”. Kudos to you I say, as I believe most of your photos will turn out fine.

Now, add a little creative shot here and there, and it would make your photo album much more interesting, special and livelier. It is definitely a treat to hear “oohs and aahs” as your photo album is being flipped through.

Here are some tips and ideas of how you can make your photography experience more interesting.

Lighting

Lighting is the single one reason for the existence of photography (actually for the existence of everything too). We could go on to describe in a whole book on lighting alone. In the future, we will have an entire article devoted to this subject. For now, just remember that lighting is not just daylight and the little flash mounted on your camera.

Sometimes, what makes for an interesting picture is the type of lighting you use on your subject. Be creative, have your subject hold a candle to light up her face, sit your subject by the window where the sun’s rays are coming through, have your subject stand in front of the sun or a bright light source and get a silhouette shot of her, shoot under bright sunlight with their shadow streaking across a flat surface or get your subject to stand near a pool of water and see how light is reflected off her face.

Give a little thought as to how light falls on and off your subject and it should give that little extra sparkle.

Emotion

Get into the habit of taking “emotional” pictures. Many great pictures evoke emotions. These pictures manage to “touch” the viewer beyond just colours on prints. Of course there is the more common type of emotions, namely happy, sad, angry, shocked, surprised and so on. To capture faces genuinely showing these emotions are a sure way of capturing a special picture. Try and discover all the other type of emotions as well, like serenity, loneliness, elation, quirky, excitement and love just to name a few.

Sometimes emotions do not only mean focusing on faces, but rather the feeling which is resulted from pictures of a scenery, memorable items, or simply the general ambience of a picture.

Angle

Have you ever asked yourself, “How did the photographer get that shot?” and you are turning your head left and right wondering at what sort of angle was the photographer in. Many of us take the all too common, “eye-level” shot. All of us see from eye-level and that is what we perceive as normal. Professional photographers often realise the impact of a uniquely angled shot or one that is taken from a different height. They use this method to distort perspective and to give the viewer a unique perception of an otherwise “normal” scene.

The advent of digital photography eases the use of this technique in taking a picture. Simply delete the pictures that you are not satisfied with. The next time you take a picture of a building, try shooting straight up the sides of the building. Perhaps when you shoot beautiful scenery, try going down to knee level and shooting between the blades of grass and if you are capturing that informal picture of a group of friends in a small room, stand up on a chair and have everyone look up at the camera.

Colour

We are surrounded by a harmony of colours. So much so sometimes we take this for granted. Photographers have a knack for getting the right combination of colours to create a good photo. Look out for different temperature of colours in your shots. Colours such as orange, red and yellow, exude comfort, warmth, sensual or even active at times. In contrast, colours like blue, green, indigo shows off cleanliness, purity and coolness. Think about how you would like to “colour” your picture.

There are also exceptions when a dramatic shot is composed with bright contrasting colours. These picture often “jump” out of pages of an album. Take a little time to walk around your subject to see how you can mix the colours in the surrounding.

Sometimes the lack of colours such as in black and white photography, sepia toning or monotone colour enhances the picture by giving focus to shadows and shapes. This is of course done intentionally and with a clear thought about the entire composition.

Shape

Look at shapes as how you would with colours. A shape is more than just the physical characteristic of an item or a subject. Shapes are also related to composition, perception, creative placement and how lights fall on and off your subject. You would probably come across this mostly when you take architectural shots. Take time to plan what sorts of shapes could be placed in your picture at certain angles. And whether this is a pleasing composition or one that may be overly complex.

You should take note of shapes even when you are taking a live subject. Taking a picture of your subject against a bright background would result in a silhouette shot emphasizing on her shape. Look again and you may realize that the shape creates and interesting shadow.

Patterns deriving from shapes are very distinctive features. Patterns are found in the repetitive petals on a flower, the windows on a building, a paved walkway, the roof tiles on a building, clouds formation in the sky and I could go on and on. Patterns can be the main subject of your picture or they may serve as backdrops to pictures of your subject.

Be creative, take a shot through a tyre swing at the playground, frame up your shot with a square window frame or compose your picture with a lotus with multiple angular petals on a round lotus leaf.

These are just some of the basic things which you should consider even when taking a common shot. With practice, it should come naturally to you.

The next time you take a picture,

1) Wait for a couple of seconds

2) Think about these key words; Lighting, Emotion, Angles, Colour, Shape

3) Compose; and

4) Shoot

Eventually, you would be hearing your first chorus of “oohs and aahs” and perhaps even some “wows”.

If you are new to photography and have just picked up that full-featured new “toy” which you have always wanted, you will come to the realization that the new camera also comes with a number of new jargons. A digital camera is a sophisticated piece of equipment. Different from its analog cousins, there is much more that is packed into it.

This may seem daunting at first but taking a little time in the beginning to get acquainted with these jargons would save you a lot of hassle of having to flip through the entire camera manual when you are suppose to be enjoying your new found hobby.

We hope to give you a little head-start in getting to know some of the basic features which you would come across. With practice, you should be able to recall these useful features at your fingertips.

WHAT’S ON YOUR CAMERA

Most of the features of a digital camera are similar to the ones on a film camera. Several items which you should be familiar with are the shutter release button, an on-board flash (with a release button), the viewfinder, the lens and a zoom-in and zoom-out control. Your camera may have unique names for some of the features shared by cameras of other brands. Let’s look at some of the more common features:

Macro : This feature lets your camera focus on items at close range. How close you can focus depends on your camera’s lens construction. Check your camera’s manual on how close you need to be, to use this feature.

ISO : The speed of a film is expressed in an ISO (International Standards Orgainsation) number. On a digital camera, you can change the ISO setting. That means, the larger the number, the faster the speed in which you camera can capture the shot. This is good, but you will be trading the quality of your shot as a faster ISO setting also means grainer shots. So, you should consider if it is worth the trade-off.

WB : You may find at times you need to take photographs under different lightings. Here is where White Balancing (WB) comes in. Tungsten lighting or your common light bulb will give you a warm colour cast and fluorescent lighting can give you a greenish colour cast. With WB, you can neutralize these colour cast by selecting from the setting options, to give you true and natural colours. You could set this feature on Auto and let you camera worry about the proper settings.

Image Quality: Your digital pictures can be saved in a variety of formats, eg. JPEG, TIFF or RAW. These formats determine the quality of the picture which your shots are saved in, with RAW (uncompressed) being the best. TIFF is also another high quality uncompressed picture format. JPEG is the most common format used as it is actually a compressed version of your shot. This means you can save more shots in a memory card with this format. Picture compression, degrades the quality of your picture slightly but is acceptable for most shots which are sent for printing afterwards. Most digital camera gives you several JPG options. A higher JPG compression (lower quality) allows you to save more shots on the same memory card. In the end, the format you use is determined by what you use the shots for.

Image Size: The maximum image size on digital cameras depends on the number of pixels on the CCD or CMOS of your camera. The default setting on your camera would be the largest image size. You can reduce the size of your shots for different purpose or just to save memory space on your memory card.

LCD Screen: This is probably the most useful feature on any digital camera. A colour LCD screen allows you to review your shots after you have taken your picture. On a non-digital SLR camera, you can use it as a digital viewfinder to compose your subjects before taking the final shot. The screen also displays information about your camera setting. (Some advanced cameras have another monochrome LCD display which does this.)

Playback Button: Pressing on this button lets you review your shots which you can toggle with a Forward/Backward control. With playback, you can delete or zoom in and out of your shot to check on clarity. This feature is one of the main reasons why most film camera users have converted to using digital cameras.

INSIDE YOUR CAMERA

CCD/CMOS Chip: The inside of a digital camera is packed with a host of electrical parts. At the heart of it all is the CCD or CMOS. This is a light sensitive chip which captures your shot and converts it into digital information which is then stored on your memory card. The quality of your picture is also affected by how good the chip is. Most new cameras are now fitted with better CCD/CMOS with improvements over past versions.

Camera Lens: Your camera lens is the “eyes” of the camera. Apart of digital SLR camera which has interchangeable lenses, most digital have built-in zoom lenses. You may work the zoom with a toggle button or by rotating the lens. Optical zoom refers to the physical range of your lens. Digital zoom refers to the digital resizing used by your camera to simulate zoom. If you do post-editing on your pictures, you may not require the latter method.

Memory Cards: Memory cards are storage devices for your digital camera. These comes in sizes of 32MB , 64MB , 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB and the numbers are still rising! Different manufacturers have come up with a number of formats like CompactFlash (CF), SmartMedia (SM), Memory Stick (MS), MultiMediaCard (MMC) Secure Digital (SD) and xD-Picture Card (xD). This is due to production cost and development of storage speed. It may be worth considering the price of memory cards when you purchase your digital camera.

Batteries: Nowadays, digital camera comes with rechargeable batteries. Aside from some brands which use common AA batteries, some manufacturers choose to develop high capacity batteries of their own. If you tend to leave your LCD on for most of your shots, this will drain the power of your camera more quickly. Having an additional battery is handy and saves on many frustrating moments when you are on that once-in-a-lifetime shot.

DISCOVER PHOTOGRAPHY

Aside from the above, there are many other optional and advanced features which your camera may have. With this basic information, you can go on to discover all your photographic creativity. Over the next few months, we will be teaching you basic and advance photography techniques. Some of these advanced features will come into play and frequent practice will ensure that you get even more acquainted with your camera. After all, you bought your camera for a purpose, why not explore beyond this and not limit yourself to how far you could go.

My Favourite Photographers

• www.stuckincustoms.com – Stuck in Customs is the creation of Trey Radcliff, one of the premier experts in HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography
• www.davehillphoto.com – Dave Hill is a commercial photography who shoots people subjects but edits the final result in a gritty, contrasty and saturated format
• www.manipulator.com – Jill Greenberg is at the forefront of people photography and most famous for evoking ‘controversial’ images of crying children to get emotions in her shots

Malaysian Photography Forums

• www.photomalaysia.com – PhotoMalaysia is a popular local photography website
• www.photokaki.com

Image Banks

• www.shutterstock.com
• www.fotolia.com
• www.dreamstime.com
• www.alamy.com
• www.corbis.com

Hi I’m Kenny Goh.

I’m have been an avid photographer and an enthusiast for more than 7 years now.  I have always been passionate about photography, starting out with simple point and shoot film-cameras. I consider myself lucky to have been a photographer since the pre-digital decade.

Having had the opportunity to shoot negatives as well as colour and black & white slides respectively, I believe that experience of appreciating the true meaning of analogue photography has been close to my heart even with my use of digital photography in this modern day.

Photography isn’t just about putting the world into a picture, it’s about looking inside you, that which perceives the world.

I love the emotions that comes with photography… the passion, the excitement, the excitement, the calmness, the pleasures, the expressions.  It’s all there for interpretations.  Capturing time at its most vulnerable moment and then looking at it over and over again trying to emulate the same feelings… but, then it’s never the same.  That’s what makes it so special.

I’ve been shooting and writing about photography all this while, but I will be rekindling back with the simple pure enjoyment I get to capture moments in time.  I hope you find what I have here, enjoyable too.

Kenny (KenjiImages)