Photography can be very enjoyable, but there is a learning curve and getting to the point where you actually like the results takes a lot of practice.
Good photography is absolutely essential if you are going to look good on your website, ad, or anywhere else you show pictures of what you do. But everyone is not just born knowing how to take good pictures, and nether were we, practice is a huge part of it, as is advice from someone who has already graduated from blurry over exposed images. In this blog I will give you a few tips on how to get nice images whether you own a basic or fancy camera.
What camera do you have?
We have a Panasonic LUMIX model no. DMC-FZ300. but we had originally started out with a basic Olympus camera with no additional lens, just the short lens that’s attached to it. It worked well while we were learning photography, but it's nice to update. Our LUMIX has a longer lens than our older Olympus, which is essential if you are photographing animals or nature because you don’t have to be right up close.
You really don’t need a fancy camera when you are starting out, it can be difficult, and frustrating for a beginner to try to figure out all the different settings on the fancy cameras. For a beginner I’d recommend you start with a medium lens. For our camera we only have a medium, and for the photography we do it’s just right.
With a medium lens we do have to be at least a few feet away from our subject if we want to zoom in and get a nice, blurred background. If you are too close with a medium lens your picture will turn out distorted.
If you wanted to be doing flower or insect photography, a medium lens would drive you nuts, since you can’t zoom and be close at the same time, get a short lens for this type of photography.
Can I use my phone?
If you don’t have a camera, you can use your phone to take practice pictures, but phones can’t zoom barely at all without the picture looking grainy. In most of our pictures we want blurred backgrounds which is achieved by being a few feet away and zooming in, something phones don’t do well.
Some phones have a setting (portrait) that can take very nice pictures of flowers, and other small things you can get up close to. So, a phone with the portrait setting can take some nice pictures, but if you are serious about getting into photography invest in a camera.
Always keep the position of the sun in mind
When you position yourself correctly the sun can make flowers glow.
When you are taking pictures, the lighting is usually best if you stand with the sun at your back as opposed to shining in your camera's lens.
If you can’t stand with the sun at your back hold your hand out to cast a shadow on the lens (it should look like you're saluting with your hand just resting on the top of the lens). However, if you want to capture a picture of the sun's rays you will need to face the sun.
A tip for capturing these kinds of images, if you include the whole sun in your photo as opposed to just the rays, you may end up with a hazy picture that doesn’t show your subject well. But sometimes, like in the picture above, the image would have turned out too dark if I had not shown the whole sun. This image works because the sun is not bright enough to create a hazy look.
Also keep in mind reflections and glares, if you are photographing an animal in the shade but the background is sunny, you will get a dark subject and a glaring almost white background, to correct this move your camera until the background is the same lighting as your subject. In the image above the bright sun works to our advantage, the background (which is really our red brick house) is in the shade and the forget me not’s are in the sun creating a background that looks artificial.
Use appropriate lenses
Almost always pictures turn out better if shot with the appropriate lens. Our camera takes the best images when you are 3-5 feet away or more.
But some cameras have shorter microscope lenses, these are perfect for close pictures. Just keep in mind that with these lens images taken from faraway look grainy and out of focus.
Regardless of what lens you have you can still take great pictures just make sure you are at the correct distance.
Background
You can’t always choose your background, but if you can, try to have it complement your subject, green blurred backgrounds usually look nice regardless, but if everything else is technically correct but something is throwing the image off, try a different background.
In this picture the electric fencing is not the most pleasant looking background, if the picture had not been taken on the fly I could have crouched down and moved back and the fence would have been blurred until it was no longer bothersome.
At some point most photographers switch to blurred backgrounds or at least staged backgrounds, it just looks nicer and is less distracting.
Make sure you show the prettiest side of animals or plants.
This is an important factor in getting a good picture, for example, our New Zealand broken bunnies don’t look the best when photographed head on because of their markings, they look much better turned to the side.
This happens a lot with plants, often the underside of a flower will have dry crinkled plant matter (I’m sure there is a better term for this!) so try your best to NOT include these natural imperfections in your images.
Props
You can add props, stage, or if possible, move your subject to get a better picture. The second image in this blog did not just happen, I intentionally went out to capture a picture of our bottle baby piglet wearing a bandana. She just happened to stand so that the background was a red barn, but the whole image was not by chance.
We have taken many pictures of animals in our hands, on tables, benches, logs, whatever will make them hold still for us.
And our animals do not just wear flowers on their heads all the time and in case you’re wondering, it does take multiple shots and many times of putting the flowers back on their heads before you finally get the picture you want.
Indoor photography
Honestly taking pictures inside is a lot harder, since most of us do not have studio lighting, and colors can look very blah, and your subject can end up looking two dimensional.
Try to photograph indoors with as much natural light as you can, if you are taking pictures of food, you can move it near a window or glass door. I’d just avoid indoor nighttime photography unless you have professional lighting, since you will have no natural lighting.
Get far away and zoom in
Generally, the farther you can get from your subject and zoom in without the picture turning out grainy the better.
The picture of the whole chicken pen looks messy, unclear, and it’s hard to tell what exactly the picture is supposed to be showing.
In this close up image of an AmberLink pullet it is easy to see the chicken and not be distracted by the cages and fence.
Avoid tight framing
You don't want to take pictures that look as if your subject is falling of the screen. A good tip to keep in mind when photographing, give animals more room in front of them, as though you're allowing them to walk forward without getting chopped out.
Portrait or Lanscape
A portrait picture is one taken vertically, and a landscape is horizontally. If you're taking a picture of a dog sitting a portrait may look better, but if the dog is laying down landscape may be a better choice. Generally the taller your subject is the more likely you will need to shoot vertically.
Editing images
Some people are very set against editing pictures, but if you think about it, all cameras do basic editing automatically, and no camera knows what you want the picture to turn out like.
We usually have to do a very small amount of editing with our images, but even this small amount can make a difference. Usually, the only things you’ll have to edit will be the color saturation and exposure/brightness. Sometimes if the picture was taken late in the day, you’ll have to increase the contrast.
What program do you use for editing your images?
For editing our images we use WIX, only because that’s the company we use for building our website. Since most of you don’t happen to have our same website builder, the editing on iPhones work just as well, you will just have to get the pictures from your camera onto your iPhone.
Hopefully this blog will help you get started taking great pictures! If you have any questions feel free to reach out to us!
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