Category: Blog Posts

In this week’s Tuesday Photography Tips we’ll cover flash exposure, a trouble spot for most novice photographers. It’s easy to understand why flash photography causes so much consternation. Take everything you’ve learned about exposure and readjust your thinking for flash exposure. You need to learn a new exposure triangle and use it when appropriate. That’s all there is to learning flash photography and, quite frankly, it’s easy to do.

You’ve already learned that exposure is controlled by the three variables of the exposure triangle – aperture, shutter speed and ISO. This topic was covered at length in a series of posts starting with this one.

Well – flash exposure is a bit different. Here’s why. Flash exposure does not depend on shutter speed. Yes, you heard that right and here’s an example of that perplexing statement.

The two photos above were taken with vastly different shutter speeds. Granted these are busy shots that violates the composition mantra to keep it simple but they will help demonstrate the point of this post. That point is this – shutter speed does NOT impact flash exposure. Believe it – look at these two photos.

Specifically, look at the exposure on Jeremiah. Even though the shutter speeds varied by a factor of 4x (1/200 vs. 1/800) you see no significant difference in the exposure on his face. How does that work?

It works because the exposure triangle for flash photography consists of aperture, flash power and ISO. Notice shutter speed is not in the flash exposure triangle. We’ve traded flash power for shutter speed. Regardless of the shutter speed, your camera will automatically adjust the flash power to give the correct exposure for a given aperture.

So why doesn’t shutter speed enter into the flash exposure calculus? Think about this – the “flash” of light from your flash lasts a tiny fraction (~1/1,000) of a second. That’s why we call it flash!! Hence, the light on your flash subject is only available for that tiny fraction of a second. The light that illuminated Jeremiah was only on for 1/1,000 of a second – for a flash. So why would the shutter speed matter. It doesn’t except ….

…. let’s look a little closer at the background. Notice how much darker the background is in the right hand panel. Remember, the background is not significantly affected by the flash – it’s just too far away for the flash to illuminate it. The background exposure is subject to the standard triangle – aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

I wanted the background to go dark to reduce the visible clutter. Since the background exposure IS controlled by shutter speed I shot the right hand panel at 1/800 sec. Granted, that didn’t work so well but the two photos illustrate the point of this post – shutter speed does NOT affect the flash exposure. It’s simple, for flash photos you pick an aperture (more on this next week) and your camera will pick the appropriate amount of flash.

Here are some examples of what you can do when you master your flash exposure triangle and mix it with the background exposure to take complete control of the lighting – foreground and background.

These photos demonstrate that the (simple) key to flash photography is to understand there are two exposures to consider:  the background exposure – for those elements that aren’t illuminated with the flash and  the flash exposure  - for those elements in the frame that are close enough to be illuminated by the flash. Once you grasp the concept of two exposures you’ll become a master of flash exposures.

In next week’s post we’ll talk a bit more about this. We’ll tell you exactly what to do to nail your flash exposures. It really is easy once you “see the light”.

Stay tuned because next week we’ll give you practical tips on how to master your flash. Better yet – be updated automatically by “friending” our Facebook site.

PS - This is one of dozens of photo tips in our continuing Tuesday Photo Tips series of posts. There  are other resource articles on our site you may enjoy covering basic and more advanced photography topics. There are also tips covering topics such as preparing for family or infant/child portrait sessions. If you would like a topic covered just jot it down in a comment or send us a note.

Recent business meetings took me to New England. I knew I had to find a way to take advantage of the photographic opportunity, despite the brevity of the trip.

I flew into Boston’s Logan Airport on Sunday evening. Monday started with a drive to Hanover, NH. Tuesday included a drive to Keene, NH followed by a meeting and finishing with a drive back to Logan for an evening flight home.

Because I planned meticulously (except the weather – more on that a minute) I was able to shoot some “serviceable” photos at each location. These aren’t quite portfolio shots but I enjoyed the challenge and I am now enjoying the photos and memories.

I made it to East Boston/Logan airport well before dark but it was raining heavily. Despite the recent warm/beautiful weather, a Nor’easter had just blown in to the area. It hung around for my entire trip. Living in Southern CA it’s easy to forget just how relentless a real rainstorm can be.

Well – I can be relentless as well. I took the challenge and took a short ~1 mile hike (as planned) from the airport hotel to Piers Park. I had hoped to capture sunset/skyline photos of the Boston financial district which lay across Boston Harbor.

According to Wikipedia, “immigrants from El Salvador, …. and elsewhere in South America have made East Boston one of the centers of Latino culture in New England”. I enjoy immigrant communities – I was born and raised in a Polish ghetto in the city of Chicago – so I felt right at home in this “working class” neighborhood.

I had to take refuge at times on my way to Piers Park but I made it despite the relentless rain. Once I entered Piers Park I could see Boston Harbor and the skyline.

While the sunset shots weren’t going to happen in this weather, I did get a couple of shots of the skyline and beautiful park.

By the time I made it back to the hotel I was thoroughly drenched ….. and thoroughly pleased with the effort and results.

Monday AM I headed out of town for the afternoon meeting in Hanover, NH. It was a 2+  hour drive in the rain but I budgeted time for a photo excursion on the Dartmouth campus. While it may be the smallest school in the Ivy League it presented a wealth of photographic opportunities.

Let’s start with my favorite – a building built in 1784. Yes, that’s right …. 1784. Here’s my photo along with a photo dating back to 1793.

My mind spins when I consider the history of this place. Imagine life in the 18th century and contrast it with your life in the 21st. Quite a stark contrast, indeed! It was quite a thrill to stand in a place with history spanning three centuries.

Here are two perspectives of another architectural beauty on the campus. This is a relatively new building dating back to 1928 – obviously the young pup on campus.

I love the warmth and inviting look of the building shown below. This photo leads me to wonder if students from earlier centuries rode their bikes to classes. Amazing campus, amazing history ….

…. but I had to leave for the meeting. A few miles away, on the road leading to the meeting, I stumbled upon a few of my favorite photos from the trip. The bog shown below led me to pull over and take a few shots.

As with the Dartmouth photos I decided to bracket some exposures and combine them with HDR Efex Pro to better capture the scene as it appeared to me. Sometime soon we’ll do a Tuesday Photography Tip on HDR because, as mentioned in this recent Photo Excursion post, it really is a useful technique to capture scenes as we see them without being limited by the dynamic range limitations of modern cameras.

Fortunately I practiced what I have taught by turning around and looking for other photos before driving away. The photo above is my favorite. It was literally less than a hundred feet from the bog. Had I not turned around it would have been missed.

After the meeting in Hanover I drove to Keene, NH. I arrived well after dark so I woke up early enough on Tuesday to capture some downtown area photos in the morning light. All of the photos were within a short walk of this downtown-area traffic circle.

Clearly there is no shortage of steeples in Keene. All three of these churches were within a short walk of each other.

Just as impressive as the churches is the Keene Courthouse and Keene Sentinel, which, according to Wikipedia is “the fifth oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States, having operated under the Sentinel name since its founding in March 1799″. Again, we’re visiting sites from the 18th century. Simply amazing, thrilling and awe inspiring for me.

I’m happy to report that the flight back to Southern CA was uneventful.

I hope  you enjoyed this “trip” to New England and time travel back to the 18th century. I loved it despite the time constraints and weather. It just increased my resolve to get there with time to spare and (hopefully) better weather, maybe next Spring.

Stay tuned for our next Photo Excursion. In the meantime, check back for our weekly Tuesday Photo Tips. Better yet – be updated automatically when we post Photo Excursions, Road Trips, Family Happenings or Photo Tips by “friending” our Facebook site.

You may also want to browse the resource articles on our site covering basic and more advanced photography topics. There are also tips covering topics such as preparing for family or infant/child portrait sessions. If you would like a topic covered just jot it down in a comment or send us a note.

This is the fifth post on Cell Phone Camera Tips. The first post introduced camera settings and the #1 villain behind blurry photos. The second warned against using digital zoom and touched on portrait techniques. The third post addressed clutter reduction and last week’s post was all about perspective and shooting angles.

Today we will touch on a topic that causes anxiety for most novice photographers – using your flash. We discussed this in an earlier post and gave you some tips on how to use your flash. Today we will focus on using the flash on your camera phone in situations you may not consider – outdoor portraits. You will learn how to use your flash as a secret weapon in these situations.

Why use a flash outside in the bright sun? Look at the photos above and I think you will see how adding a pop of “fill flash” (as shown in the right hand panel) made a huge difference.

In those photos the flash wasn’t used as the main light source – that job was aptly filled by the sun. However, our tiny camera phone flash provided a burst of light to “fill in” dark shadows and correctly expose the children’s faces.

The flash on your camera phone isn’t very powerful. But if your close enough to your subject (no more than 10 feet) it can provide “fill” even with backlit subjects.

Turn on the flash by toggling through the modes (Off, Auto, On or, if available, Fill.) Keep your subject within the “flash range” – less than 10 feet – and let the flash light their faces. Keeping within the flash range will also ensure that you fill the frame with your portrait subject – a technique discussed in this earlier post.

The level of sophistication in your cell phone camera is truly astounding. Before you can blink an eye while you’re pushing the shutter button the flash fires, the camera analyzes the amount of light returned to the sensor and then adjusts the flash power resulting in a correct exposure. That’s right – your camera has a computer inside that very quickly and accurately meters the flash and adjusts its power before you are even aware it’s happening. Amazing!

With that in mind, let’s look at some simple flash considerations to keep in mind. They aren’t complicated – just situations to avoid because your camera phone isn’t infallible.

In dark scene where the flash contributes most of the light (e.g. outdoor at night, dark rooms) only nearby objects will be lit. As stated earlier, flash only works on objects within 10 feet from the camera. This is especially true for small camera phones. Don’t expect your flash to light up anything beyond that distance – it just doesn’t have enough ooomph. If you try to overwork your flash your subjects will have that “shot in a cave” look – not real impressive.

If  you have someone or something significantly closer to the camera than other people or objects that someone/something is going to be overexposed while the others will be correctly exposed or underexposed. Did we mention how quickly flash power falls off  with distance (I hope so!!). Here’s another consequence of that – Aunt Martha is overexposed because she is so much closer to the flash than her daughter and the others.

So, the simple technique is turn on the flash even when  you wouldn’t think to. You’ll notice an immediate improvement in the photos of your children/family especially in outdoor scenes.

Feel free to comment or show off some of your own compositions that illustrate this tip. In the meantime, stay tuned because more Tuesday Photo Tips are right around the corner. Better yet – be updated automatically by “friending” our Facebook site.

PS - This is one of dozens of photo tips in our continuing Tuesday Photo Tips series of posts. There  are other resource articles on our site you may enjoy covering basic and more advanced photography topics. There are also tips covering topics such as preparing for family or infant/child portrait sessions. If you would like a topic covered just jot it down in a comment or send us a note.

Two weeks ago Rebecca and I visited Shannon and Nathan. We played with Nathan amongst the clutter of boxes that were being filled for an impending move.

Well, the move happened last weekend. Now …. Rebecca and I have plenty of experience moving, as do most people. But I’m sorry to say we weren’t able to apply our own lessons learned to this moving adventure.

Rebecca was in Las Vegas with her brother for the annual Baker to Vegas run. A large collection of police agencies get together, form teams, and run (in the heat) from Baker, CA to Las Vegas, NV. Sounds almost as much fun as moving, doesn’t it!?!

With Rebecca out of town I had nothing better to do than join the moving fun. But – I was suffering mightily from cold/flu symptoms that made it impossible for me to help in a meaningful way. So I stopped by for a short visit to cheer on the troops and take some pictures of the new house. Oh yeah – I bought lunch for the troops. So I did help a bit but I didn’t touch a single piece of furniture – I didn’t want to spread any germs. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)

This new house is a real winner. They’re moving from paradise …. to paradise; from Huntington Beach …. to Newport Beach. The new house is one block from Lido Isle. What a fabulous neighborhood. All these years when we’ve driven to NB we’ve sat on the 55 freeway breathing car fumes. Well – here’s a secret. Take Irvine Blvd instead. It parallels the freeway and takes you along a scenic route with views of Upper Newport Bay (more on that in a minute).

Back to the mansion/house. Shannon (daughter), Dan (son-in-law) and Nathan (grandson) are going to share this mansion with Shannon’s mom (Diane) and her husband (Dan W). That’s Dan W moving furniture in the photo above. Very cozy and a great combination for all involved (especially if you get the master bathroom!!). Diane has been sitting for Nathan 2-3 days per week. How much easier is that going to be now that they are in the same home??

I didn’t stay long but, as I mentioned, I catered the event (pizza from the local NY-style pizzeria). We all took a break in the kitchen. Shannon decided to swoop Nathan up lest he get stepped on.

While others did the heavy lifting I took a few photos of the backyard. The photo below is/was a panoramic shot done automatically with our favorite compact camera – the Sony NEX 5N. But the format of this webpage makes it impossible to show the full panorama.

But the highlight of the yard is the garden area – complete with a statue. I look forward to seeing what Shannon and Diane do with this area.

OK – so when the guys left for a second truck load I headed home. On the way I took advantage of the view along Irvine Blvd. I stopped at the Peter & Mary Muth Interpretive Center. It wasn’t open but I spent a few minutes walking and exploring.

I would have jumped on the trails but …. did I mention the flu/cold symptoms? Yes, they were real and I felt less than real. So I took a few photos and headed home.

But, rest assured, we’ll be visiting the NB mansion often and will no doubt take advantage of the trails. I’m sure the grandkids will love the hikes.

This is our fourth post discussing Cell Phone Camera Tips. The first post introduced camera settings and revealed the #1 villain behind blurry photos. The second post warned about the evil digital zoom (don’t use it) and discussed techniques to improve your portraits. In the third post we discussed clutter reduction – an important aspect for photos taken with any camera.

In this post we will assume you’ve got your camera settings covered,  you’ve eliminated camera shake as a concern and you have begun to examine your frame for unwanted/distracting clutter.

If you look at most camera phone photos you’ll recognize a persistent “look”. The  look we’re referring to is not caused by any limitations inherent in a camera phone. Rather the “look” comes from the eye-level, far-from-the-subject composition employed when shooting snapshots from a camera phone.

We’re going to illustrate unique perspectives and, hopefully, convince you to think “out of the box” to capture stunning photos with your camera phone. In an earlier post we discussed how to use unique perspectives when shooting children.

Get down to kid height to record children playing.

Or, if you want to portray a sense of power shoot from below.

But, most important, get close to your subject. Fill the frame with your subject. Get low and close to emphasize and highlight the subject matter.

Putting the major scene element in the foreground – filling the frame with it – makes it appear larger than life. That’s clearly demonstrated with the surfboard and the remote control Barbie car photos.

If you want your portrait to take on a fashion look – get below waist level.

Sometimes you need to get above the scene. In the beach photo below I set my tripod on top of a picnic table getting as high as I could.

For this photo from a recent wedding I was standing on a stool.

Sometimes you need to get even higher to get the photo  you want. Climbing to the top of the bleachers worked for this photo.

Sometimes the shooting angle is the entire reason for the photo.

If you want the viewer to join the scene, get low and close to allow them to join in the fun.

Or look for that unique perspective that tells the complete story without revealing any more detail than necessary.

When you get close and photograph from an interesting angle it allows you to get creative with your post processing to add another unique look to the photo as shown below.

So – take your cell phone camera and start looking for unique angles.

Experiment, have some fun, learn the details of your camera/phone in the process. Knowing all you can will enable you to start thinking about and “seeing” interesting compositions. You will develop the artistic skills and vision that lead to great photos – even from a lowly cell phone camera.

Feel free to comment or show off some of your own compositions that illustrate this tip. In the meantime, stay tuned because more Tuesday Photo Tips are right around the corner. Better yet – be updated automatically by “friending” our Facebook site.

PS - This is one of dozens of photo tips in our continuing Tuesday Photo Tips series of posts. There  are other resource articles on our site you may enjoy covering basic and more advanced photography topics. There are also tips covering topics such as preparing for family or infant/child portrait sessions. If you would like a topic covered just jot it down in a comment or send us a note.

Earlier last week Rebecca and I spent a stormy Friday with Shannon & Nathan. We posted a few photographs of that visit here. As is clear from the picture below it was a very rainy day.

But we got some nice photos of our grandson and enjoyed our visit with Shannon. On the way home I couldn’t help but capture a few “stormy” photos.

There are many beautiful homes in the area but the #1 photo opportunity we drove past was the First Christian Church located on Main St a few short blocks down from HB High School. We’ve passed it many times before but since the skies were stormy and we had our new camera (Canon 5D Mark III) I had ample reason to pull over and take a few photos.

Truth be told – I never lack ample reason to take a few photos, as Rebecca will attest. Of course, she was very understanding (she always is). She had her iPad to keep her entertained while I traipsed about.

The Mark III makes it quite easy to shoot high dynamic range images. It will even process the three exposures “in camera”. But for the church I did the processing the “old fashion” way – using a very powerful Photoshop plug-in, HDR Efex Pro, from the team at Nik Software. The photo below has a bit of a painterly look – easily applied with HDR Efex Pro.

There were a few very nice homes just around the corner from the church so I took liberties and photographed them. Once again, to capture the full dynamic range of the scene with the stormy skies, I bracketed three exposures and let HDR Efex Pro blend the exposures.

HDR photos are very popular, for good reason, but they can be overdone. In the photo below I purposefully over-applied (in my opinion) the HDR effect to show what has become so very popular. While the skies were stormy they weren’t quite as dramatic as shown below.

The 5D Mark III has the ability to do its own “in-camera” HDR image processing. I haven’t played with it much – as I said, I prefer to do things the “old school” way. But here’s that same home with the exposure blending done by the camera.

There’s quite a difference between these two photos. One is overdone while this one is a bit “under cooked” to my taste. The Mark III has a few blending options – I haven’t experimented with them yet. This was the first option – we’ll play with the others soon.

HDR photo processing is becoming common in all levels of camera. It really does make blending of exposures easy. The “in camera” processing is done in seconds without the need for Photoshop or any other plug-in.

HDR photography is here to stay and will become more common as more cameras include in-camera processing. If you have a new camera, check the manual and start playing with HDR photography. We’ll cover it in detail in a future Tuesday Photo Tips post.

Keep an eye out for our next Photo Excursion post. In the meantime, check back for our weekly Tuesday Photo Tips. Better yet – be updated automatically when we post Road Trips or Photo Tips by “friending” our Facebook site.

You may also want to browse the resource articles on our site covering basic and more advanced photography topics. There are also tips covering topics such as preparing for family or infant/child portrait sessions. If you would like a topic covered just jot it down in a comment or send us a note.

This is our third post on Cell Phone Camera Tips. The first post introduced camera settings and discussed the #1 villain responsible for blurry photos – camera shake. In the second post we warned you about digital zoom and explained how to get the best portraits from your camera phone.

It would be a good idea to read those earlier posts, if you haven’t already. In this post we will assume you’ve got your camera settings covered. We are now ready to consider composition. We’ll describe techniques that lead to pleasing  photographs – regardless of camera cost – for the remaining posts in this series.

There are many attributes and compositional elements to consider. It’s not our intention to cover them all. We will focus on the most significant in this series on Cell Phone Camera Tips. Others, such as rule of thirds (as shown in photo below), foreground objects, framing and diagonal lines are covered elsewhere. For today’s post we’ll consider the #1 technique to improve your photographs.

5) Clutter Reduction

No, we’re not talking about cleaning out your garage but …. if that’s what came to mind you may need to consider that. The clutter we’re talking about is found in most snapshot photographs. There is no quicker way to improve your photography than reducing the clutter in  your frame.

When you’re looking to frame the scene ask yourself this question before you press the shutter: “What in this scene is important?” Once that’s determined then look around the frame and eliminate all the other clutter. We want to focus attention on the scene element you decided was the most important. Fill the frame with that scene element. That’s the quickest way to reduce clutter and usually requires nothing more than moving closer – zooming with your feet. Resist the urge to be lazy – heed the digital zoom warning we wrote about last week.

More often than not this can be achieved by finding a simple background to photograph against. This is usually easy to do for portraits. Look around; move your subject to ensure there are no tree branches growing out of their heads.

Another great technique for portraits is to give the subject breathing room. Look for “negative space” – a fancy phrase used by pros to denote open areas as discussed in this post. Both of these engagement photos below include negative space – but one violates the rule of thirds. Read that earlier post and learn why we decided to purposefully brake that “rule”.

The techniques illustrated in these photos don’t require any special equipment. They do require a bit of planning and a willingness to put yourself in a position to minimize background distractions. So please get in the habit of checking for distractions in your frame. Then make adjustments in your position to eliminate them. The quality of your photos will improve for all to see.

Next week we’ll talk about photographing from multiple angles to not only reduce clutter but to also find new and interesting perspectives that will set your photos apart.

Feel free to comment or show off some of your own compositions that illustrate this tip. In the meantime, stay tuned because more Tuesday Photo Tips are right around the corner. Better yet – be updated automatically by “friending” our Facebook site.

PS - This is one of dozens of photo tips in our continuing Tuesday Photo Tips series of posts. There  are other resource articles on our site you may enjoy covering basic and more advanced photography topics. There are also tips covering topics such as preparing for family or infant/child portrait sessions. If you would like a topic covered just jot it down in a comment or send us a note.

It was a rainy day Friday so Rebecca and I took the opportunity to drive to Huntington Beach to visit Shannon and our grandson Nathan. It’s not a particularly long drive. They live near the beach and far from the freeway. With any traffic it’s at least a 35-minute drive. But, it’s time well spent when we get to visit. Unfortunately since we left at midday to avoid traffic we missed Dan, Nathan’s Dad. (My new Chevy Volt is looking sharp and shiny in the rain. The more I drive it the more I like it!!).

Shannon and Dan have sold their home and are in the process of finding a larger one. Everyone loved visiting this house partly because it’s walking distance from Main St. and the Huntington Beach pier. We took advantage of that location often and never had to fight for parking during big events such as the US Open of Surfing. If you’re in town – take the kids – it’s one fun-filled weekend with a lot going on besides a great surf competition. This year it starts in late July and finishes on the first weekend of August.

The house they’re in now is quite small – a classic HB cottage. It’s great when you’re single but now they have an infant and they’re planning for another child soon so it’s time to move. Of course, that means packing and boxes and clutter – oh well. I’m glad Rebecca and I are set in our recently-refurbished “castle” in Laguna Niguel. We’re a short 5-minute drive from Salt Creek Beach – living in paradise and not planning to move.

With all the clutter it was tough to grab anything more than “snapshots” but that didn’t keep us from having fun.

Rebecca and Nathan had a lot of fun with a variety of toys. At one point she adorned him with a toy crown. He decided it was time to do his “touchdown” imitation – his dad is a huge football fan.

Rebecca and I prefer baseball so I set him up for some infield practice.

It’s clear both he and I had a good time even in the space-constrained environment.

Of course, all that playing led to a hungry young lad. Nathan doesn’t hesitate to inform Mom that he’s hungry. And when he’s hungry he can chow down with the best of them.

It was a great visit – we’re hoping their move goes well. They won’t stray far from their current location so we’ll be visiting regularly.

Of course, we may have to fight the parking wars for this year’s US Open of Surfing. If you see us there be sure to give us a shout out.

This is our second post on Cell Phone Camera Tips. The first post introduced camera settings and discussed the #1 villain responsible for blurry photos – camera shake. We covered the four most important camera settings – resolution, compression, scene mode and ISO and included tips and a link to techniques to eliminate blurry photos.

In this post we will dive a bit deeper into our favorite scene mode – portraits – after we touch on camera phone zoom settings.

3) Zoom with your feet

We wrote an earlier post on how optical zoom impacts perspective, a very important consideration for portraits. Today we will focus our discussion on the pitfalls of camera phone (digital) zoom.

There are two types of zoom. Optical zoom is much preferred over digital zoom. With optical zoom the camera lens is moving to increase the effective focal length. If the lens doesn’t seem to be moving it’s because the lens elements inside are on the move.

Zooming in increases the focal length; zooming out reduces focal length. Consider a common zoom lens, described as 35-105 mm. The 105 mm focal length is 3x longer than the 35 mm. This is a 3x optical zoom – the standard optical zoom ratio for digital cameras.

The optics on  your camera phone have a fixed focal length. Your camera phone can’t magnify the image – there is no optical zoom button.  Camera phones only offer digital zoom. Our goal is to convince you to use digital zoom as sparingly as possible.

A digital zoom enlarges the image by “cropping” it. The camera chooses a smaller area of the image, after it has been captured, and discards pixels (i.e. information) outside that smaller area. Only the pixels inside this smaller area of the frame are recorded.  Hence, the camera’s resolution is being degraded.

That’s a real problem because, as we mentioned in last week’s post, image quality degrades quickly. I used digital zoom on this 10-year old photo (of me) in downtown Chicago. The zoomed image is too “pixilated”. We’ve thrown away too many pixels in order to digitally zoom.

There is a healthy way to zoom in – zoom with your feet. Get closer to your subject. Fill the frame by moving closer. We have an earlier post on filling the frame – a key to improved composition. If you absolutely can’t get closer for safety reasons or protocol issues then go ahead and use your camera’s digital zoom. But, you’ll end up with much better photos if you zoom with your feet.

3) Use portrait scene mode for portraits

Portrait mode is one of several scene modes (landscape, sports, macro …) available from your camera phone. Your camera will select shutter speed and aperture values based on the picture mode you choose.

In portrait scene mode your camera will use a wide-open aperture. If you chose landscape mode your camera will use a small aperture. Why do you care what aperture your camera chooses? Because for a portrait you want the background out of focus to highlight your portrait subject as shown in this wedding photograph. This use of “selective focus” in portraiture is discussed in this post which introduces the concept of depth of focus.

We don’t intend to repeat that discussion except to say that the shallow depth of focus that we are looking for in portraits is very difficult to achieve with the small sensor in your camera phone. The best antidote to this is – you’ve got it – get closer to  your subject. The closer you are to your portrait subject (which has the added benefit of filling the frame) the shallower the depth of focus. It helps if the background elements you want to blur are somewhat in the distance.

The message to take away is this – help the computer in your camera phone choose the right exposure settings (aperture, shutter speed) by telling it what kind of scene you are shooting. That’s as important for landscape or sports scenes as it is with portraits. We’re just partial to portraits which constitute the vast majority of cell phone images.

Stay tuned – more Tuesday Photo Tips are right around the corner. Better yet – be updated automatically by “friending” our Facebook site.

PS - This is one of dozens of photo tips in our continuing Tuesday Photo Tips series of posts. There  are other resource articles on our site you may enjoy covering basic and more advanced photography topics. There are also tips covering topics such as preparing for family or infant/child portrait sessions. If you would like a topic covered just jot it down in a comment or send us a note.

Today we took the grandkids to the local park for a fun, early-evening prelude to supper and homework. We brought our newest camera – the Canon 5D Mark III – and ended up with some terrific “family environmental portraits”.

These outdoor portrait photo sessions are our favorites (especially when we’re photographing our grandkids!!). The photographs are a combination of spontaneous moments and “semi-posed” portraits. Take a peek at this slideshow and ask yourself if this is the type of family portraiture you would cherish. If so – drop us a note and we’ll arrange for a fun, family outing at a location you choose. (PS – Try the video in 720 HD format by clicking on the Change Quality button. Go full screen for max effect!!).

While we have an intimate studio that is available to our clients, we prefer to photograph families at locations that are familiar and significant to them. Many clients have images taken at their home or at a favorite outdoor spot (local park, favorite beach, etc.). Rebecca and I can recommend many locations that will enhance your family portraits. We will make your family/child portrait session short and enjoyable. This session with the grandkids lasted only 30 minutes.

It’s our job to make your family look its best.  We do this in two ways.

1 – Our approach allows your family to relax and look natural. We don’t pose – rather we give direction. Rebecca will put everyone in comfortable, relaxed positions helping with posture and positioning to ensure everyone (especially Mom) looks their best. We will often tell you to go play and have fun together so that we can capture playful family interactions and timeless expressions of love. The kids on the slide in this video/slideshow certainly serves as a great example of this. We’ll make sure Dad and the children will have fun allowing their individual personalities and natural expressions to show.

2 – Every photograph is color corrected and artfully enhanced. We have years of experience and training with image enhancement software. Color correction and retouching is done to make your family look great without any indication of retouching. We offer image enhancements that create a painterly look (as shown in this photo) suitable for framing. We offer black and white, sepia toned and several other image enhancements options.

We hope you enjoy the slideshow. We certainly would enjoy capturing your family in a similar setting.