h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Ten tips for taking good photographs - A1137070
Author: Gnomon [Back from weekend in England] - U151503

A short guide to photography. Most of these apply to both digital and film cameras.

Great entry

considering I'm still very grateful to you for a certain reason I feel a bit bad nitpickig.. but anyway..

*Settles down to do what Scouts do best*

I can't help feeling that it starts a bit abruptly, would it be possible to have a nice introductory paragraph before we move onto tip one? Also the offical guidlines say that you're not meant to start with a header, as we can't really take away 'Tip One' as a header from that section I think an introduction might help...

One point -
Paragraph 8

children get bored very quickly and will start to mess,

'mess around' maybe? or do you know something I don't


Not sure about the title either, it seems a little too general for me... no information on how to take action shots or close ups, whole areas of photography not covered...

How about "10 tips for taking better portrait photographs"
or
"10 tips for taking better photographs of your family"

Oh, and of course you might have to change it again when some smart alec comes up with tip number 11

Not really my subject at all, but I cannot resist pointing out 'If it is a person, it is acceptable to cut off their feet'.

Hello Gnomon

I agree with Z and Whisky - an intro would be nice, and as it's about photographing people, I think either the title or the intro should make that plain. I like the tips - - and I confess to one of those who really should remember No.10 at all times

I claim the prize for smart-alec of the day If you do get onto less portrait-oriented photography, I can provide you with the 11th. >The Law of Thirds< Particularly relevant for landscape photos, when the picture should be made up of (approximately) one third of each of three elements - like sea, sand, sky ( that would be a boring photo!); or trees, people, river and so on. It really does work. Check out published landscape photos and you'll see...


F/b

Oh crikey I've got a 12th !

>Take more than one shot< This is especially true if you're taking people, cos we all know that granny will have her mouth open and her eyes closed in most photos. And if she does have her mouth shut and her eyes open, the dog will be doing something unspeakable front centre.

I always take at least 4 pictures. Usually there's one worth keeping and the rest are binned. I guess this isn't such an expensive option now that digicameras are used so much.

I'll shut up now

F/b

OK, do you think I should change it to "Tips for taking good photographs" and include Frenchbean's "Law of Thirds"?

(I knew that law. I'm kicking myself that I forget it at the crucial moment when I was compiling the entry).

Whisky, I think "mess" vs "mess around" is a an Irish vs English thing. In Ireland, children mess by punching each other, making silly faces at the camera etc. "Stop messin'" is a normal thing to shout at a child.

I don't want to get too technical with macro lenses, shutter speeds and so on. I want the tips to be general ones that everyone can relate to.

Nice entry, I enjoyed reading this.

I find that many people take photographs where the subject's face is centered in the frame, leaving the top half of the photo filled with background. You could mention something about positioning the frame so that the subjects fills up more of the space. Sorry but I don't know any technical terms to describe this.

I hope that might be some help?

QB

I've made a couple of small changes. I've added Frenchbean as a co-author. Anyone else who comes up with a good tip can be a co-author too! (I get final say as to what goes in and goes out).

Good idea for an entry But I agree that the title should reflect the entry's focus on portrait photographs.

When you wrote about cutting parts off it could be worth mentioning (I forget the still camera name but what we call Safe Title) the markers in the view finder.

your friendly neighborhood

I would include a tip about using a fill-in flash in the subject is back-lit, otherwise you'll get a dark face and a light background. You've covered it as a hazard, but not said what to do about it.

I'd also use the well known phrase 'fill the frame' in the bit about 'Look at the subject'. You might also want to add that there are circumstances in which you would *want* to cut parts of their fact off (if doing a portrait) for instance, for dramatic effect, particularly if there are strong shapes or colours or angles.

You haven't said anything about black and white, but it can be wonderful for capturing atmosphere, and it cuts out unnecessary clutter too.

Did you want to say something about choosing the right speed of film?

Oops, just read the entry again, and you have mentioned using a flash - my brain must have filtered it out as it didn't say 'fill-in flash'. It's one of my top tips, though.

Oh yes, it may be worth saying that if you're photographing people with darker toned skins, often the skin will be underexposed because the camer 'expects' light skin, so you have to adjust for it - again, I would tend to use a fill-in flash or bracket the exposure. If you are photographing a snow scene, the opposite can happen.

Aw shucks I'm a co-author!

In that case what about another for photographing landscapes, related to light source? If the sun is behind you, it'll all be beautifully illuminated, but if the sun is in front, you can still get cracking atmospheric photos, that look like they've been taken in moonlight. I'm sure you can put that in much better words than me Gnomon, if you know what I'm getting at, and if you agree !

ZSF: I am horrified that cameras are programmed to expect pale skin: how very unPC of the manufacturers

F/b

I was taught that many years ago (along with the rule of thirds, etc) when I did a photography course (we were so enthusiastic, we started our own photographic society, which is still going). I'm always very careful when taking photos with darker skinned people. Un PC? Yes. It's true, though. It makes it difficult sometimes when taking photos of a mixed group of people.

Strange, Zarq! I was taught that cameras expected everything to be "18% grey" which is a rather dull grey which matches rather well the average reflection of most surfaces like grass etc. Coincidentally, it also matches the darker skin of most black people, although the really dark-skinned people from Nigeria and such like would be even darker. I was taught that cameras are not designed to match pale-skinned people and you have to compensate.

It's been almost 20 years since I did my course. Thinking back, I can remember being told that cameras average out what's in front of them, which is why, when confronted with a snow scene, on automatic, it tends to come out sludgy grey and and adjustment needs to be made.

I've usually found when photographing darker skinned people, that unless I compensate with a fill-in flash, they come out too dark and you can't see their features very well as they're underexposed. I don't tend to have that with paler skins, unless, as I said, they're backlit.

For snow scenes, of course, it depends on how much snow there is as to how much it affects the exposure.

I own a practically antique? (well compared to 4 years later) Sony Mavica which uses floppy discs. Always take at least 2 spare and check that they are not only formatted, but still record! Had one with beautiful action shots on as per the index, and every one had .jpg marker wrong length - so couldn't download any!
All the photos I took last weekend had to have the zoom on to get more than a pimple in the middle. Need a tripod if your hand is not too steady! The fence I was using as a substitute kept collapsing
This camera is very handy for illustrating web site - but there - I now have been too busy taking pics and not enough uploading.
Point and click
That's a pic!

Watermusic

P.S. Did I hear on the news that Kodak-Eastman is laying off staff due to the falling demand of film and rise of the digital!

Gnomon, That's quite a subject to take on!

In your section marked 'General', you may want to inlude a check for a battery, as well as for film. Few cameras, nowadays, have completely mechanical systems. It used to be that film was enough.

Under 'Look at's, I didn't notice you suggesting that they pay attention to any framing lines in the viewfinder. A lot of people lose the tops of their heads that way. Parallax can kill! (well, ... not really 'kill' as such ...)