A Few Secrets to Taking Better Snapshots

So... you go to the photo place to pick up the prints from your latest batch of pictures from your own personal camera, probably including someone's birthday, someone's wedding, the last softball game of the season, or maybe a day when it snowed. As always, you are sure that your new digital camera will have made all the difference, and that your shots will all be masterpieces, suitable to enlarge, mat, and frame. Instead, you discover that the prints turned out, much like they did from your old film camera, in some cases worse, and only about half are even worth showing to anyone else, let alone put them in an album or on the wall.

It could be that the problem is less about the equipment, and more about the process or the user's methods. While I don't suggest that the paragraphs that follow are as complete as the photo classes that are available over the internet or at the local university, they may be helpful in getting more of your pictures to "turn out," as we used to say. Observing a few of these may keep your photos appearing as if the background is way too dark, while the faces are all bright and washed out.

1. When shooting inside, get your subjects away from the walls! Even if the faces are perfectly exposed with regard to light and color, when the subjects in the photo are only standing 6 inches from the wall behind them, the flash will create a dark shadow that can be very distracting. Even a few feet of distance will help to eliminate these harsh shadows, and allow you to see some separation between the top of the subject's head and the back wall.

2. Also when shooting inside, if you have a flash that can be set to bounce off the ceiling, use this feature when possible. You'll have to experiment with this a bit, but there is something very natural about the lighting effect that comes when you have bounced your on-camera strobe off the ceiling or some other object before it reaches your subject. If you have a digital camera, you can review your experimental shots immediately on the back of the unit, and make adjustments as necessary to get that natural lighting look.

3. When shooting outside, don't think you have to have the sun shining over your shoulder into the subject's face. This is an old habit that we learned as kid picture-takers, to make sure that our subjects were well lit when we clicked the shutter. Of course, they were squinting so hard that you could hardly tell they had eyes, but by George, you were positive that the faces would be well-lit. Try this instead. Shoot in open shade, where the shade is light and uniform, or have the subject face away from the sun, and then use an on-camera light to fill-flash. At least they will be looking at the camera in a natural way, with a natural smile, and not be uncomfortable from looking directly into the sun. Actually, it is appropriate to have them face into the sun to get that "golden" look, provided you are shooting at the proper time of day, that is, just before sundown, when those wonderful warm tones are so prevalent, and squinting doesn't pose a problem.
4. Shoot more close-ups. Snapshots of family members standing in front of your favorite rose bush or evergreen tree don't have to be full-length from head to toe, unless the purpose of the shot is to show what they were wearing that particular day. If you photograph someone standing, you often end up with a lot of space in the shot that doesn't mean much, like parts of the house siding or the distant yard. Shots from the waist up, with those same wonderful roses in the background, will often make a much more interesting photograph, and will have more of the area of the photograph actually dedicated to your intended subject.

5. If this is a planned photo session, and not just casual or spur-of-the-moment shots, encourage your subjects to wear solid color shirts or blouses and wear long sleeves. These features tend to be less distractive to the eye than busy clothing patterns such as stripes or plaids.
6. When shooting a group of people together, try to have the faces somewhat close together. When one line of heads is separated from another line of heads, the photo will appear rather disjointed.

7. Don't think that every picture has to be symmetrical. Unless it is a special type of shot, pictures of single subjects should probably have the head positioned about 2/3 of the way up from the bottom of the frame, and slightly off-center, with the face pointing toward the center of the frame. Off-center subjects are often more appealing to the eye, and will look more natural when the print is displayed.

8. Don't forget about good old black-and-white. There is something magical about the black-and-white format that can seem very "artsy,' can seem quite formal, and can tend to maintain the main focus on the subject being photographed. A collage of black-and-white photographs displayed on a wall will almost always catch the eye of the visitors in your house. Make sure that you frame these photos with a white mat, so that the color scheme is consistent. (One extra hint: If you are doing your own color-correction before taking your black-and-white photos to the lab, mix in just a very slight touch of red to the entire frame. This will warm up that shot and give the same type of coloration that we used to see when black-and-white photography was the standard.)

9. When shooting photos of your pet, don't worry so much if he/she is not looking directly at the camera. For one thing, the eyes of some dogs and cats tend to do terrible things with the flash, and will have a red-eye appearance that can only be fixed in the computer (for digital shots). The other reason is that, many times, the animal appears more natural looking away from the camera. And the third reason is that you can literally wear yourself to a frazzle trying to get a pet to stand still and look where you want him/her to look. If you're using digital, shoot up a storm for a few minutes, get what good ones you can, and move on. Most pets are only attentive for short stretches of time.

10. Take the time to learn the settings on your camera. Most have so many automatic features that we often choose to just buy them and start shooting pictures, thinking that we will learn about all the other technical features as we go along. Those instruction books can be great friends. A few minutes discovering how to set the white balance or the exposure level on your new camera can be a very good investment of time, and may reduce your frustration level when you are insistent upon having good photographs for your album or wall.

And there's just one last thing I'd like to suggest. It's about the overuse of your camera. I've seen so many instances where a family vacation or a family event was dominated by the pictures that had to be taken in order for the experience to be complete. Instead of enjoying the time and the surroundings that a vacation can provide, some people insist on making sure the pictures got taken, and would only hope that there was time left over for the originally-planned activity. Spend more time taking pictures of people having fun. A few posed shots are fine, but in the long run, those unplanned "snapped" shots can be just as important.