Photography Hints, Tips, Suggestions & Rules

I tend to get a fair amount of questions about photography, my camera, lenses, tips, and editing.  Last night, I was emailing back an answer to someone when I experienced a little deja vu- didn't I just write that exact same thing last week to someone else?  So I've decided to write down some of my own personal photography rules and give you a few of my suggestions and tips.


Taking Pictures

I only have a few rules that I consistently apply when I'm taking pictures.  These are just my own personal suggestions and everyone has a different style, so they might not work for everyone.

Mode

One of the main advantages to a DSLR is being able to control all aspects of how the camera takes each picture.  This is why it's so important to shoot in manual mode. If you have a DSLR and you are still in the automatic modes, get out of them and try practicing with the creative modes!   If you are already using the creative modes, like Av, Tv, A-Dep, etc., you're almost there- just start to practice in manual (M).  I wouldn't recommend practicing at your child's birthday party- stick with what is comfortable to you in that type of situation.  But the more you shoot in manual the easier it will get and the quality of your photos will greatly improve.

Flash

I never use the flash unless I absolutely have to and even then, I probably won't.  If I'm in a low light situation without a tripod, I use the lens with the lowest capable f/stop and increase my shutter speed. The reason you need to increase your shutter speed, which actually lets in less light, is that it closes the shutter very quickly, meaning your picture won't be blurry (but it will be darker). If that still doesn't work, I'll bump up my ISO.  The reason that's my last resort is the higher the ISO, the more noise in the picture, ie., grainy.  If that still doesn't work, I will look for any available light source and try to use it to my advantage.  When every available option has been tried and I still can't get a good picture, I might resort to using the flash.  If you have a built in flash, this doesn't apply to you, but if yours is attachable/removable, aim the flash upwards.  That should provide you with the necessary light without the full harshness a flash tends to produce.

f/stop

I prefer to shoot with the highest possible f/stop because it produces sharper and brighter pictures.  A low f/stop means smaller aperture, ie., less light.  Unless you are trying to take pictures of fireworks, the moon or stars, generally, in low light situations a lower f/stop is needed (with the aforementioned exceptions you will need to use a tripod and a larger f/stop) but not if you are outside on a nice sunny day. I like to go by the Sunny 16 rule of thumb:  In full light, during the brightest part of the day, the best camera settings are an f/16 aperture, 1/250 second shutter speed, and 200 ISO.  Using that as my go-to setting, I can then make the appropriate adjustments depending on the light I have.

Storage

(I'm a little crazy about photo storage and archiving- I have a ridiculously deep fear of losing all my pictures, so please don't think you have to do all of these.)

Taking pictures with a DSLR gives you the option to shoot in either RAW, jpeg, or both- I always choose both.  That may sound a bit redundant and like a waste of space considering RAW files are enormous. I know that the large size of the RAW file is a deterrent to many people who only have a two or four GB memory card, but there really are so many advantages to shooting in RAW and I will get to why I also do jpeg in a minute.  My advice is to purchase a few of the smaller sized cards or search for some good deals and buy one that has a large capacity.  I just got one that is 16GB for Christmas and I can't tell you how nice it is to not have to constantly worry about running out space and trying to delete pictures when when I should be taking them.  (My 16GB was $50, which, when considering I paid $29 for my 2BG one, was a huge bargain)  If you are someone who never edits their pictures, then there is no reason you need to have a RAW version of your pictures- jpeg is all you need.  But, if you do edit your pictures, especially in either ACR (which comes with all editions of Photoshop) or Lightroom, you need to be shooting in RAW.

When you attach your camera's memory card to the computer, whether via card reader, internal slot or USB, it will automatically select the option Delete After Importing.  I deselect that check mark right away!  After all my pictures are on my computer, I then immediately upload them to two different "in the cloud" services; first to my private picasa web albums and then I pick out the ones I want to make sure get saved and upload them to either flickr or shutterfly.  Finally, I save them to my external hard drive.  None of these pictures have been edited yet because I like to keep one copy in their original format- which is why the extra jpeg file is needed.

The only real disadvantage to RAW files is that they need to be converted to another format before you can see them on your computer or upload them to another site; this conversion is generally done in a program like Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) or Lightroom.  (There are other many other programs that also do it)  Since I like to upload a "just in case something bad happens to my computer before I'm finished editing" copy of the original picture, I have to have a jpeg file or else I won't be able to upload it. I hope that makes sense!

Erasing

Once I have everything safely stored in both locations, I breathe a sigh of relief.  Now comes the part you probably haven't have heard of or have been afraid to try.  With your memory card back in your camera, you have two options that will erase the images; using the trash can button or reformatting.  Choosing to reformat is the best option because it greatly decreases the likelihood of your card becoming corrupted and crashing.  When you erase pictures with the trash can, fragments of the files are still left behind and over time, this decreases card stability. 

Okay, well I think this is long enough for today!  Tomorrow I will post on my rules and suggestions on editing and and equipment.  Please let me know if there is anything here that needs some extra clarification and I will try to better explain myself.

It Came Upon an Afternoon Not So Clear

I woke up this morning feeling like a seven year old on Christmas.  After months and months of saving my money, today it would be here!  Of course, this day would have happened much sooner if not for the Great Electronic Deaths of 2009- when both my TV and my laptop had to be replaced.  (The TV lived a long happy life, unfortunately, a Great Force of Destruction...Spencer... armed with orange juice killed my laptop two weeks before Christmas. 

Since I'm about six months removed from those incidents, I can now think about them without having my blood pressure sky rocket into the stratosphere.  In fact, I can even see the bright side.  If I hadn't been saving my money for this large expenditure, I wouldn't have had the funds to replace the TV and the laptop, which, to be quite honest with you, might have been the death of me.

So these were pretty large set backs that brought me to tears more than once, but I never lost hope.  It's been 11 months since I've had a hair cut by someone other than myself, eight months since I've left the greater Richmond area to see any of my friends, eight months since I've eaten at a restaurant with anyone other than family, seven months since I've purchased a magazine, and six months since I've bought myself anything without a gift card (thank goodness for my Swagbucks and those Amazon gift cards!)

Basically, this self-deprivation has been going on too, too, too long. And just when I thought I would never have enough money, The Fates took pity on me and felt bad for all they had put me through.  I received an unexpected gift in the mail on the same day that Amazon sent me an email alert telling me that the object of my affection was going to be available at a discounted price for the next week.  The combination of those two events gave me just enough money!  Not being one to ignore "the signs," I acted with all due haste and the order was made.

These past few days I've felt just like I used to when I was a little girl counting down the days to until Santa would deliver a plethora of elfin-made toys under my tree.  I compulsively used the tracking number to check the status and location of my order and then last night "it" told me she had arrived in Richmond- which meant today would be The Day.  In true Katie Fashion, luck was not exactly on my side, and the UPS Man did not ring the doorbell until 5:05pm, just as the clouds began to darken and the rain started to gently fall. (Even though it got to Richmond LAST NIGHT!)  I signed for it, shut the door, sat my butt down right there on the floor and opened her up.

I am now the proud owner of a brand new Canon 50D, body only.  I wanted to take pictures right away, but that was not to be; I had to charge the battery. UGH!  And then life things/obligations happened- dinner and bath time for Spencer, etc., followed by the previous sprinkling of rain turning into a large thunderstorm that had to start just as the life things/obligations were over.  So I haven't had much time to learn and play around yet- in fact,  I only took 14 pictures!  But from what I have done/seen/read, I have a lot to learn and then some. While a few of the features are the same as on my Rebel Xti, there's a bunch that's new and different.  It's going to take me awhile to really get to know all of the ins and outs, but I am A-OK with that!

Now it's dark and Spencer is sleeping, okay, that's not true, she's fighting sleep with all of the strength she possess, and I'm realizing that I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow morning to really take any good pictures.  I've waited this long, I think I can make it another 10 hours, haha!  Here are a few of the pictures that I took this evening. They are SOOTC (straight out of the camera), which means there's not post-edit work. 

 

My Sky Was in Love

Yesterday was my Papa's birthday and my mom, Spencer, and I went to his grave to put flowers on it and sing happy birthday.  He is buried, alongside of my Mema, in the military section of the cemetery, as he was a Decorated Seaman who served in the Navy during WWII.  Since his birthday is so close to Memorial Day, his flowers always have a patriotic theme and we add a little American flag- that's what my Mema always did for him and so we continue to do it in her place. I took out the older flowers that were already there and put them on a grave with an empty vase.  That was what my Mema always did- she hated to see someone's resting place without any flowers as if they were just forgotten.  Carrying on these little traditions that are relatively small in the big scheme of their lives, somehow makes me feel the closest to them.  It's the little, probably inconsequential, things that I think they wouldn't want me to forget.

On the drive home Spencer kept singing Happy Birthday to Papa and I joined along with her.  A storm was coming in and the clouds started rolling quickly in the sky. That's when I saw it: my sky was in love.
 

 It started off small and a little undefined, but I knew in my bones what it was going to be since I'd seen one once before- and I was right

 It started to take it's shape, growing a little, but never getting very big.

.  

And then the sky started to lighten up and my little cloud of love started to roll away just as quickly as it came in.  And I knew, I really really knew, that it was my Mema and Papa saying to me Thank you for remembering. We love you.

She's a Big Girl Now

This time last year my little Spencer looked like this.

She was just starting to lose her baby face and I knew it wouldn't be much longer before she was a little girl instead of my baby. And now it's happened.

It's all happening too fast for me.

Easter Sunday

I will tell you all about it tomorrow!  I have a nine AM anatomy test in the morning and I've got to spend tonight memorizing the cardiovascular system and all of it's many arteries and veins and other related tidbits.  (Not fun at all!)

But real quick I have to share this super cute Spencer story!  The children all sang a song during the morning church service called "Praise Ye the Lord."  In goes in a round and you sit down and stand up according to what part of the song you're singing.  Well, she just loved this song and wanted to sing it all day.  When we got in the car after church was over, she said she was going to sing "Crazy the Lord" for me; she thought Praise Ye The Lord was Crazy the Lord!  My girl cracks me up!

Texture Challenge on I Heart Faces

I've always wanted to do one of these photo challenges, but it seemed like I was always forgetting, or when I would remember it was too late to submit a picture. Well, I finally got to it, my first I Heart Faces photo challenge, and it was on textures. I've never done anything with textures before, so this actually was a real challenge! I still don't have the best grasp on the whole concept, but hopefully I'll get better at it the more I practice and experiment. So here's my little Spencer with Texture!

Flakey White Stuff Falling From the Sky

They say it's going to snow here in Richmond tonight.

 

The last time it snowed (3 weeks ago), Spencer and I were house bound for three days!  THREE DAYS!

 

Those were not the best 72 hours of our lives.

And while it was really pretty...

And made my Christmas lights look all dreamy and Winter Wonder Landy ...

    

We had almost a foot of snow and our neighborhood roads weren't cleared for four days.  These three pictures taken on days one, two, and three of of our confinement.  And since this is Virginia, and it rarely snows like this, I was not the owner of an ice scraper for my car.  See all that snow?  I cleared it with a CD cover!  It toom me a long white and I thought my fingers were going to fall off.  I did go out and buy after that experience, so at least I'm prepared for that!  If Mother Nature is listening to me, I would like it snow tonight and melt tomorrow- please don't stick around for more than 24 hours.

Katie Had a Little Lamb

Yesterday, our church had the annual Christmas Pageant. It was supposed to be the Sunday before Christmas, but due to the blizzard that dropped a foot of snow on the ground, it had to be rescheduled. Spencer was a lamb in the nativity scene, although, stage fright prevented her from actually making it into the nativity. But she was a super cute lamb, if I do say so myself!

My Little Bo Peep, or I guess Spencer was her pet lamb. But that doesn't sound as cute, so I'm sticking with Little Bo Peep and not Little Bo Peep's Pet Lamb!

Maybe just a tad inappropriate for a church!





Not that she cared!

And still refusing to look at the camera.

Afterward, we had a little Christmas party, hence the costume change. Spencer LOVE, LOVE, LOVES my brother, and he told her to look at me and smile, so of course she listened to him! I took over 100 pictures yesterday, and this is the only one where she's looking at me and smiling. Oh well, at least I got this one!

Picture Page

My Snow Queen





Loved the toy solider teddy bear, but





She was afraid of Santa Claus...

Until Christmas morning, and then Mr. Claus become her new BFF when she found all of the toys waiting for her under the tree

Although, she still wasn't all too keen on looking at the camera, or keeping her tutu down

But she jumped for joy on her new trampoline

And then finally granted me a look at the camera- in this splendid picture


We had a great Christmas and New Year and I'm ready to tackle to 2010! I put myself on a computer and internet hiatus over our break so that I could just focus all my energy and attention on Spencer. It was a wonderful break, but now I'm ready to get back to bloggy business before school starts again next week.