Photography Tips

By Cal Thompson

I volunteered to be the HHCA photographer because I really enjoy capturing life with a camera… Now this does not mean I am an expert by any means – but I am happy to share with you a few general tips on the subject!

My Dad was a professional photographer, and I’m sure he would be smiling right now if he were here, but here goes anyway!

· The first tip I have for you is to decide what kind of photography you want to do! If you want to capture long shots of a deer walking through the woods, you probably aren’t going to have much luck with an inexpensive point and shoot camera. On the other hand, if you want to take snapshots of the family picnic that point and shoot will do just fine. The following tips really depend on your decision as to what you want to capture.

· Now – do you want a film camera, or a digital? These days, there are digital cameras that will do practically anything a film camera will and more, and I would recommend a digital camera to almost anyone over a film camera, so my remaining tips are aimed at using digital cameras. Although film camera’s are lower in cost than a comparable digital, over the long run a digital is cheaper to use, provides an instant result (so you know if you got the shot you were looking for), and will probably help you become a better photographer quicker than using film.

· How about mega pixels? Basically this number determines how BIG your picture is, and how much detail you will get if you choose to print a BIG picture, or want to use photo editing software to zoom in on a portion of the picture and crop the rest of it out. I would recommend a camera with at least 4 mega pixels, and more is generally better. Don’t get too carried away with it though, since there are other factors which affect your picture quality just as much.

· Digital zoom vs optical zoom. In my opinion, forget about the digital part ( I won’t go into detail about it, but digital zoom produces inferior image quality). Concentrate on the optical zoom number, which is just like the “power” quality of binoculars. If your camera has a 10 power optical zoom, it actually makes the subject appear 10 times larger. If you want to take pictures at considerable distance and get close-up effects (wildlife, sports, etc) you want as much optical zoom as you can get. A camera with image stabilization is very helpful if you have a camera with a high power zoom. It is a bit tricky to hold a camera steady at max zoom, and you may get blurry photos, especially in low light conditions where the shutter speed will be slow. Image stabilization kind of holds it steady for you.

· I could go on and on about the technical details of cameras, but let’s get on to the subject itself! The general idea is to center your entire subject in the picture, and get as little as possible of anything else – in other words, don’t include the entire forest in your picture if your subject is one bird…

· Modern cameras do an excellent job of setting all the various factors, such as focus, shutter speed, lens opening and exposure sensitivity – as long as you have enough light! If the lighting is dim, the camera will try to compensate by slowing the shutter speed etc to let in more of the available light. This is great, except that if you move the camera while the shutter is open, your picture will be blurred… In low light it is best to use a tripod, or correct the light by using the camera’s flash. Flash is effective at no more than about 15 feet, so if your subject is farther away than that, you’ll need to have more light or use a tripod. Some cameras will allow you to set the exposure sensitivity (like the ISO value of film), so that the shutter speed will be faster, producing crisper pictures in low light.

· Now then – go practice, practice, practice! Take a BUNCH of pictures, of anything, and get used to your camera so you know what to do when a good shot comes along.

· The most important tip I have for you is this…Have a camera with you when that magic moment comes! Great pictures are the result of someone being at the right place, at the right time, with a good camera that they know how to use….