Tips and Tricks To Take The Picture

• Experiment with photo editing and make the most of your photos using Photoshop
• Match the textures in the person’s face with the background
• Frame the subject, for example through a window, a box, etc…
• Break all rules of composition
• Overexpose/underexpose the subject
• Take portraits candidly without the awareness of the person being photographed
• Posing: experiment with having the subject pose in engaging positions
• Capture what’s different about the subject, don’t go for the obvious
• Use shadows and reflections as your subjects or to complement them
• Experiment with macro photography
• Crop your photos to isolate unique aspects of your photos
• Blurred images can make great portraits as they symbolize movement
• Place subjects in unfamilar situations or places and get them out of their comfort zone
• Use props to create interactivity
• Obscure or highlight a part of their body
• Control the light
• Have the subject look off the camera or look inside the actual photo
• Experiment with different lenses and filters
• You’ve heard it before, but it never hurts…. ‘Think outside the box’

How to Take a Black and White Photo

How You’ll Take the Shot

If your intention is to create a black and white photo, start by taking the photo with this in mind as opposed to shooting in color and then switching to greyscale.

Simply put, an original  black and white photo will most likely display better in quality than converting a color photo.

Perspective

When you add your own perspective to your photos, you allow your viewers to take a look inside the meaning behind the subject being photographed.

Depending on what you’re photographing, you should be mindful as to how your photos are going to be interpreted. See the image below for a photo that could be interpreted in multiple ways.

Eliminate Cluttered Backgrounds

Black and white photos communicate best when they have uncluttered and simple backgrounds.

You can address this issue by repositioning the object or person, or by blurring the background. This way, the background does not interfere with the focus of your photo.

Leave out random and insignificant elements, as these will create confusion and compete with the viewer’s attention.

Backlighting and Useful Shadows

Lighting is certainly essential in any photo, especially in black and white photography. As colors are absent, the focus changes to light, shadow and the interaction between these.

Thrive for a balance that allows just enough light in, so that the image is visible and all elements can be clearly made out. There should be just enough dark elements so that that these can block out any distractions that may be caused by too much lighting.

How to Take a Self Portrait

Like most photography techniques, there will be a lot of trial and error involved to get the best results for a self portrait. You’ll usually have to shoot photos over and over again, trying to achieve a perfect combination of pose, coverage and focus.

This is because a self portrait is one of the best ways to express oneself and to portray your personality, which is not easy for most people to do.

For each method below you’ll first set the camera to auto-focus and then change the setting to manual focus. This prevents the camera from refocusing while you move around to the front and get ready to take your photo.

The Camera

You can start by setting the camera on self-timer mode to shoot your photo however, a remote will certainly come in handy and will probably be almost essential for self portraits. You can likely get one for around $20 and having one will significantly simplify the process of taking a photo of yourself.

Coming to Terms with the Shots

There are times when it’s probably going to be difficult to relax in front of the camera. This can cause your portraits to end up looking stiff and lifeless.

In this situation, simply do whatever you’d normally do to relax either before or during the shoot. For example, you may wish to listen to music, sing a favorite song, or think of something that would relax you and make you feel at ease.

Editing your Photo

Once you have a few shots that you think portray what you believe should be your self portrait, it’s usually a good idea to edit the photos further.

It’s rare that a photo will come out perfectly just like as it is. Most times they require cropping, resizing, and anything else.

Experiment with framing, cropping, lighting and saturation until you’re satisfied that the photo truly represents you in the best possible way. You can use any photo editing software to do this, such as Photoshop.

How to Take a Portrait Picture

Choosing the Right Background

The background will set the mood for your photo, so be extra careful when choosing yours. The ideal background will guide the viewers’ focus to a specific area that you wish to draw attention to, for example, the face.

A neutral, soft colored background will work best and is far more effective than one that is filled with too many details and colors.

You may wish to also blur the background, in order to further emphasize the foreground elements.

Focus on the Eyes

As the saying goes, “the eyes are the window to the soul”.

Different feelings can be conveyed, depending on the direction in which the subject’s eyes are pointing. Play with this by having your subject look in various directions, until you are happy with the feeling that is portrayed.

Adding extras such as a smile, frown, or grin is a bonus that amplifies the main focal point of the photo.

Lighting, Lighting and more Lighting

The possibilities for lighting are truly infinite. Lighting is the most important element in any photo composition and sets the mood, feeling and character of your photo.

Sunlight can be a bit tricky. If you take a portrait in the daytime, make sure that your photo is not overpowered by the sun.

Positioning and Angles

Don’t limit yourself to horizontal and vertical portraits; after all, those aren’t the only two angles that exist.

Positioning your camera at creative diagonal angles can add a fantastic artistic flare to your image.

An easy mistake to make is to only slightly position your camera at an angle, which can leave your viewers wondering if this was intentional or a mistake. If you’re going for an interesting angle, make it obvious and clear that that’s what you intended to do, as shown in the example below.

Some of Macro and Close-up Picture

  

How to Take Great Macro Photographs

Depth of field will be extremely shallow

That is, the area that is in focus will not be very deep, which means that your point of focus will be critical. If you don’t focus specifically on the area that you want sharp, then it might very well end up out of focus, due to shallow depth of field. This can be particularly tricky if you’re trying to shoot something that’s moving, such as a flower on a windy day.

 If you have the right controls, try going to a smaller aperture to get deeper depth of field. Note, though, that even at f8 or f11, you’ll still have very shallow depth of field.

 If you have Photoshop CS5, and you’re shooting a still subject and have some time, you can shoot multiple shots, each focused to a different depth, and Photoshop can combine them into a single, final image with deep depth of field. Use the same PhotoMerge feature that you use for stitching panoramic images.

Understand your camera’s macro feature

Some point-and-shoots require you to be within a specific focal length before they can focus. Usually, this is in the middle of the camera’s zoom range. So, don’t think that you can go into macro mode, and then zoom in real far to get even closer. Odds are, you’ll have to be zoomed out a bit. (The macro mode is usually indicated by a flower icon on cameras.) Learn more about what a camera's macro mode really does.

Move rather than zoom

If you want a particular crop on your image, it will be easier to move the entire camera in and out than to try to make small, fine zoom adjustments, because even a tiny amount of zoom will result in a big change in your image. Also, if you’re finding your camera can’t lock focus, try pulling back a small amount.

Don’t take just one

Because focus can be difficult, take multiple shots of the same frame. This will give you a better chance of ending up with a shot that’s in focus, with the depth of field you want. Some point-and-shoots have a “best shot selector” feature, which automatically shoots a burst of images, selects the sharpest of the bunch, and then discards the rest.

Don’t block your light

One tricky thing about macro is that, once your camera’s in tight, you might cast a shadow on your subject. If you have Live View, you can probably get you and your camera into a position where you’re not casting a shadow. However, you may have to stand farther back and zoom in to completely eliminate your own shadow. You can try to combat shadows with flash, but this can be tricky because, up close, the flash can overexpose your scene and wash out all detail. If your camera has a flash exposure compensation control, you can try to reduce the brightness of the flash, or move the camera farther back to reduce the impact of the flash.

The Basic Concept To Take A Picture

Most of us aren’t professional photographers, but many of us take our amateur photography seriously. Over time, we come to realize that there’s a lot more to taking pictures than just pointing and shooting! In fact, a photographer who’s serious about his hobby should learn about topics such as lighting, exposure, composition and camera angles, to name a few.
Read on to learn the basic concepts behind the art of photography.

Lighting and Exposure
Have you ever taken pictures that are so light or so dark that you can hardly make out the subjects? If so, you’re aware of how important the proper lighting and exposure can be in photography.
How the lighting of a scene affects the exposure of the film is one of the most basic photography concepts. The more light within the scene, the more the film will be exposed. Conversely, the less light a scene has, the less the film will be exposed. While overexposed film turns out pictures that are too bright, underexposed film will be too dark, appearing “blacked-out.” Understanding how to manipulate lighting will help a photographer properly expose his film.
In any given scene a subject can be fully lit with direct light, fully lit with indirect light or partially lit with backlighting or ambient lighting. Any directly lit subject is relatively easy to photograph, meaning that the film will be properly exposed and the picture will “turn out.” On the other hand, partially lit subjects are a bit more elusive: generally, the lighting or film speed should be manipulated to ensure the adequate level of exposure.
Learning how to alter the film speeds and lighting in poorly lit scenes takes some effort. However, a photographer can purchase a light meter, a tool that measures the amount of light in a scene. Given this measurement, the photographer can choose the appropriate film speed.

Composition and Camera Angles
Another basic principle of photography is composition, or the technique of setting up the subject within the camera’s frame. The proper composition of a shot is directly related to the angle at which the photographer takes the picture. With a particular camera angle and a planned composition, a photo can draw in the viewer’s eye, add meaning to the image or add a sense of movement and dynamism to the scene.
If the photographer wants his viewer to focus on a certain aspect of the shot, he can place the subject in a certain area of the frame. For example, putting the subject higher in the frame gives the subject an imposing presence on the viewer. On the other hand, placing the image lower tends to make the subject more submissive and possibly more mysterious to the critical viewer’s eye.
By drawing the viewer’s eye to a particular part of a picture, the photographer also invests a particular meaning of feeling to his shot. Depending on the subject photographed, its placement within the frame can make it appear more mysterious, forceful, compliant, or intriguing.
Another set of basic photography concepts involves the skills used by a photographer to make an image appear dynamic. For instance, a shot with the subject framed directly in the middle can make the viewer feel as though he is falling into the subject.
An example of this would be a picture of a person looking through a hollow log while the photographer is at the other end of the log snapping a picture of the person’s face. In this shot, the viewer’s vision moves through this tunnel, shooting immediately towards the person’s face. While not as overtly dynamic as action shots, this sort of compositional concept adds a subtle sense of movement to the picture.

Welcome To My Blog !!

I'm Muhamad Syakir b. Shahidan, a student from Northern Malaysia University. Photography is now running through my vein every single heart beat since year 2011 when I was in matriculation. I started the whole thing from nothing but passion. In this blog, I will expose  the basic photography , how to take picture , my exprience and photo that I take , and all about photography. I hope this blog will help people that have no knowledge about photography and you all can comment and ask me about photography in this blog. I hope you all will be enjoy !!