May Photography Challenge Tips – Week 1

Well I’ve had to follow through now, I offered a challenge and you picked up the gauntlet:)  Plan is, we’ll snap away through the week’s challenges and showcase seven masterpieces on Mondays in May (hey, alliteration naturally!;) linking back here so we can ooh and ahh.

Keeping in mind whilst I’m a rank beginner, I have been reading various tips and books. I thought I’d share a few of the ideas I’ve gleaned that I’m ruminating as I snap away this first week.

Day 1: A photo from a high angle
Climb up on a chair, a table and you’d be surprised at how much background clutter you can eliminate.  Background clutter is soo distracting and reduces the quality of your picture.  Up high really does make a difference, go on snap away and you’ll see what I mean.

Day 2: A photo from a low angle
Crouch down, squat down, even lie on your belly to get down to the level of your subject.  This makes a huge difference.   Your photos of ‘dominating’ your little one will be a cringe of the past and you instantly improve the quality of your pictures.  After all we want everyone to see just how darling our little one is:)

Day 3: A photo of changing light
I’m only new at this one, but the ‘books’ tell me that ‘soft light’ is a great time to photograph.  Sunrise, sunset, an overcast day, the softer light makes our subject brighter.  All to do with white light.  Lost you?  Me too, I’m still processing this one.  However I’m snapping away, hoping this wisdom will ‘click’.

Day 4: A photo of something close up
Fill your lens.  Walk closer towards subject, zoom in.  It makes a massive difference.  Yes we can crop and edit later, but  walking/zooming in is best.  ‘They’ say walking in gives a better resolution than zooming, to do with pixels, processing still.  Oh and remember the rule of thirds, picture a grid, your subject is best to the side a little, don’t ‘plonk’ subject smack dab in the centre of the picture.

Day 5: A photo of something from a distance
Well I’ll be using my zoom here (no fancy lenses just an inbuilt one) and I’m planning on dusting off my tripod and  seeing what a difference this makes.

Day 6: A day of focusing on eyes
Keeping the rule of thirds in mind, that’s where I’ll be planting eyes, apparently eyes on the cross of the grid is ‘the place’ and I’ll be getting down and in real close.

Day 7: A photo depicting an emotion
My camera has a few settings and I’ve been reading the manual, wow, don’t know why I’ve never done that before, found out all sorts of interesting matter.  So I’m turning setting to smiles, and I’m turning setting to bracketing.  This means camera clicks off three rapid shots in succession.  So I’ll be having a party, maybe break out the bubbles and click away whilst the children blow and laugh, making it natural.

Sarah is a huge inspiration to me, be sure to catch the first of her Shutter Speak series, fantastic tips and most timely!