Disney Chronicles

A few photo taking tips that I have learned over time…. (most unfortunately from experience). 😛

1. The first is really the most important….there is nothing worse than seeing the blinking low battery light as you are getting ready to take your photo! Especially if you don’t have a backup.  It is always wise to bring extra batteries. Especially if your camera has video recording capabilities. The battery and memory card will go before you know it!  Before you leave your room in the morning, be sure that you have extra memory cards for your camera (you never know what the day will bring) and fully charged batteries.  Plan ahead so there are no costly regrets when you pay double for what you could have brought.

2. Watch were the sun and shadows are.  Having the sun at your back means your subject will be nicely lit with bright colors and a lot of contrast.  Otherwise the sun will wash out your photos.

3. On the other perspective is night photography.  Who doesn’t want a great photo of the Castle with all its magnificent lights! Bring a tripod or monopod. If you don’t have either, brace the camera (or yourself) against a building, railing or other solid object, and be very gentle when you press the shutter button.  Even the smallest type of hand shake will blur the photo.

4.  Eliminate red eye…. check to see if your camera has a built in red eye reduction setting. Most newer DSLRs and point and shoot cameras come with this feature. This setting will change your flash mode to help significantly reduce the effect of red eye in your photographs. It actually causes the flash to go off twice in two microbursts. The first small flash serves to cause your subjects pupils to contract and close, which reduces the amount of the retina which is exposed to the flash. When the second flash is triggered, the contracted retina produces almost no noticeable red eye effect. Didn’t know what did ya! 🙂

5. Get up close and zoom in! You may be surprised at the detail you see!

6. Take a GREAT group or family photo.  Make sure everyone is looking at the camera, that the photo is balanced, meaning everyone is relatively close together and symmetrical from front to back and left to right.  Avoid glare from eyeglasses, have anyone wearing them simply tilt their head slightly downward (remember: slightly, not looking at the floor or in a totally different direction!)

7. Don’t forget the water parks!  Thanks to today’s waterproof and underwater cameras you can capture all the wet and wild action.  What’s better than a great underwater shot.

And for my last tip….Kids do the darndest things and they also take the darndest pictures, so give your young ones imaginations a chance. Single-use “disposable” cameras are a great way to get them started. Help them “spend” their shots wisely, but give them the freedom to shoot whatever they please. You may be amazed by the outcome!

This entry was posted on January 8, 2012 at 9:06 PM and is filed under EVERYTHING DISNEY with tags photo taking tips, photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.