Hello Henriëtte here with this months photo challenge.

This time the topic is: 5 Situations When Manual Focus is Better than Auto Focus

From an article by Darren Rowse (editor and founder of Digital Photography School)

When is Manual Focus Better than Auto Focus?
Let me start by saying there is no right or wrong time to use either manual or auto focusing – both can produce great results in almost all circumstances – however there are a few times when you might find it easier to switch to manual focusing:

Situation #1: Macro Work
When doing macro photography I almost exclusively switch to manual focusing.
The narrow depth of field in these shots mean that you need to be incredibly precise with focusing and being just a smidgeon out or having your camera choose to focus on the wrong part of your subject can completely ruin a shot.
To use it you’ll also probably want to use a tripod to eliminate any movement of the camera which can make focusing either in manual or auto mode frustrating.
Manual focusing puts the control completely in your hands when shooting in this very precise setting.

Situation #2: Low Light
Shooting in dimly lit environments can be difficult for some cameras and lenses when it comes to focusing.
You’ll know when your camera is struggling in Auto mode when every time you go to take a shot the lens will whirl from one end of it’s focusing options to the other and back again before deciding on where to focus.
This can really lengthen your shooting process and make taking quick candid shots quite frustrating.
Switch to manual mode and you can quickly find your focusing point and get the shot you’re after.

Situation #3: Portraits
When shooting portraits focus needs to be precise.
The majority of your shots of people will need to have their eyes in perfect focus and so switching to manual focus will give you complete control to enable this to save you from having to line up the focusing points on your camera on the eyes, press halfway down and then frame your shot.
Manual focusing in portrait work helps to ensure the viewer of the image is drawn to the part of the face that you want them to notice.

Situation #4: Shooting Through Glass/Wire Fences
If you’ve ever shot through anything like a window or a mess/wire fence you’ll know how cameras will often get confused on where to focus your shot.
Whether it’s shooting out of a plane window, taking a shot of an image at a museum or photographing animals through fences at the zoo – you might find your camera is confused.
Manual focusing will avoid this completely and allow you to get things just right – focusing upon the subject behind that glass or fence. If you do this in conjunction with a large aperture (which decreases depth of field) and get in close to the fence or glass you might well eliminate it completely from being noticeable in your shot.

Situation #5: Action Photography
Shooting fast moving subjects (like racing cars, planes, bikes, running animals etc) can be a frustrating experience when shooting with auto focus.
Even the continuous focusing modes can get left behind or confusing if you’re not panning with your subject smoothly.
One way to overcome this is to switch to manual focusing and pre focus on a point that the subject will move through – and shooting at that point. You need to get your timing just right – but you’ll find that it’ll often give better results than relying upon auto focus modes (particularly if you shoot in continuous shooting/burst mode).
Shooting in manual focus mode is a skill that you need to learn and practice. While you will have more time to get it right when shooting still objects – it can become more difficult when shooting moving subjects – so practice. While your practice session might not produce great results the skill that you learn will be useful to have.

Can’t wait to see your photos!

Henriëtte

Hi Henriëtte here with this months photo challenge.

First I would like to announce the winner of last month’s challenge: it is Mary’s (littlehiccup) really jummy looking picture of this beautiful lamb cake (minus the eyes that is, those look a little bit scary)!

Congratulations Mary!

Tip #1: Use a simple background

Find a position that provides a plain, non-competing background.
Or place a black or pleasingly colored cardboard behind the flower.

Tip #2: Get close

If your camera has a close-up focusing mode, use it and get as close as the camera manual suggests.
With a digital camera, use the display screen to compose the picture.
Accessory close-up lenses are mandatory for dedicated flower photographers.

Tip#3: Shoot at different angles

Vary the level of your viewpoint.
Shoot down to create attractive patterns of little flowers; kneel to the level of other flowers, such as tulips and daffodils.

Tip#4: Use creative lighting

Observe the lighting on your flowers. Backlighting shining through some flowers gives them an appealing glow. Cloudy-day lighting reveals subtle hues.

Tip #5: Control the wind

Is the wind tossing the flower about? Bring the flower indoors and create an attractive still life that you can easily photograph. Put the flower in a vase and place it near a window. Or use a piece of cardboard to block the wind. Choose your camera angle so the cardboard doesn’t show in the picture. Or choose a colored board and position it to block the wind and to serve as the background.

(From an article by Kodak)

Can’t wait to see all of your entries!

Hi there, it’s Sharon (aka skyezak) here with today’s photography tip.

I thought I’d give you a quick look at how some of my not-so-good photos have changed over the years (yes, these are seriously not the best photos when some of them were taken by me in my childhood with the crummiest camera out)!  But you can see that this assortment I’ve picked out are all off-colour – some have a pink tint, a yellow and even a green tint to them.  It seems that during the 70’s, the photo processing techniques were not very photo-friendly and thus the photos have slowly changed colour over the years.  If you have your photos stored in light or in harmful photo albums such as those ones that are sticky where you lift the clear protector up to pop your photo down, then you may also be contributing to the deterioration of your precious memories.  I was first introduced to paper scrapbooking about 6 years ago through an at-home workshop and although I didn’t think much of sticking your photos onto white pages with a minimal amount of embellishments, I did take onboard the knowledge I learnt about preserving your photos.  I didn’t realise that the acid found in many of those sticky albums can deteriorate your photos so that in many years to come, they will be gone — forever!  If you have any photos stored in non acid-free/non photo-safe albums, it is best to get them out as soon as you can.  Make sure you store your loose photos in a dark and damp-free spot too. For these photos where the colour is ruining the image, I’d scan them sooner rather than later to stop the photo deteriorating beyond salvaging.  At least you can scan the image and edit in your photo-editing program rather than wait until the image disappears beyond recognition.  Non-scrappers probably wouldn’t think twice about this, but after seeing how many of my old photos have ended up, it’s best to take this message onboard if you want to have these memories around for your children and their families to remember you by.

The background paper on the image above is from the May ScrapMatters newsletter kit, so it’s a little sneak peak for you!

Hello Henriëtte here with this months challenge.

To start here is the winner of past months challenge:

Christine (inhisgrip)

with this wonderful picture:

I love the great setting and how he looks to be so caught up in his own thoughts, totally unaware of the camera.
Congrats Christine!!
On to this months challenge:

The subject for APRIL is something we need everyday: FOOD!

So take a picture of your favorite dish, or most yummy looking food and make our mouths water….

And a food picture would be great for entering in the “a Matter Of Taste” challenge were members can exchange all their yummy recipe’s!
Here are some tips for making the food picture looking extra yummy:

 Styling Your Food

• Place solid or simple patterned papers (available at a scrapbooking store) as a background. Figure out what works and does not work in terms of contrast and similarity. Also, make sure that you have enough paper to completely cover the entire field of view.
• Experiment with incorporating serving pieces, whole place settings, napkins, placemats, and tablecloths. Set the table with silverware, drinks, and even candles to convey the right mood. If you’re budget-conscious, you can always find these items at thrift and resale stores, flea markets, and garage sales.
• If you have multiple food subjects available to you (like two dozen cupcakes from which to choose), use only the best examples. A blemish can easily ruin an entire photoshoot.
• Mist fruit, vegetables, and glassware with water to create condensation and make them look more appetizing. Shiny food appeals more than dull food, and anything you can do to make your food shine will make a more interesting photo.
• Incorporate elements from the food you’re shooting or place appropriate condiments in the frame. Slice cucumbers thinly and place them on top of yogurt soup to lend it some freshness. Accompany Thai food with small bowls of sugar, chili, fish sauce, and fresh limes. Some ideas will work, and some won’t.

 Food Photography Composition

• Zoom – with both your lens and your feet – to put the food in its place. Whether you are using a prime lens or a zoom lens, you can always get in close to magnify a detail of the food or loosen the shot up to show the food as a component of a larger meal.
• Rotate along all three axes. Some food looks best when looking directly down on it, while other food has an interesting side profile that can only be seen when shooting across the food at its level. Slightly tilting the camera clockwise or counterclockwise can add some interest to an otherwise dull photo. Take advantage of the low cost of experimentation since you’re shooting digitally.
• Use the rule of thirds. In general, the rule of thirds helps to easily give you compositionally strong photos, and this holds true not only for landscapes and action shots but for food as well. Practice following it to learn when you should treat it as a suggestion rather than a rule.
• Take advantage of the fact that your subjects won’t walk away. While a lot of food stylists say that you only have a short time to work with food after it’s served, that hasn’t been my experience (ice cream being the exception). I always feel that I can walk around, zoom, hover, and poke and prod to get the shots I need.

From an article by Jonathan Pollack (digital-photography-school.com)

And here is my go on the challenge:

Well my photo has been prosponed due to the hospitalization of my youngest daughter, I hope you’ll understand and I will post my picture and LO as soon as possible.

But luckly you can already enjoy these mouth watering pictures of Cyndi (Cyndi146) and Monique (Monsu):

Have fun!

Hi, it’s Sharon (aka skyezak) here with this week’s Photography Phriday post

I’m by no means a pro at this photography stuff, but I like to play and having a fab camera (Canon EOS 400D) helps me take the most stunning pics without even really trying.  I’m yet to master all of it’s capabilities, but I’ve loved some of the shots I’ve managed to snap during the few years I’ve owned it.  Today I thought I’d share the photos I took outside in our garage for a Christmas shoot in 2007.  Yes, it was quite a while back and I’ve been wanting to do another shoot of the kids again but just haven’t gotten around to doing it.  So I thought I’d show you what I took back then and give you some tips on how I achieved it.

Let’s have a look at what I took first.  Now remember, it was just me and the kids out in our garage.  I popped the camera onto a tripod, hung up a black sheet from the roof and set the counter to snap us!  No fancy lighting or anything – I was relying on the sunlight that was filtered through from our pergola.  The first shot in each set is the original straight out of the camera and then I’ve shown the Photoshopped version.

Some of them came out a little glary, but with some help from Photoshop to boost the contrast and reduce the brightness, I was ready to use these in our annual Christmas cards that year.  You don’t have to take the most fabulous shots ever but with a little bit of effort, you can achieve some fun shots like I did.  Have a few props at the ready and the kids are ready to pose all day!

Hi everyone, Monique (monsu) here with this week’s Photography Friday!

Most scrappers love taking photos! We consider ourselves to be the family historians and want to make sure we always have plenty of material to scrap with! But most of us also love the safety and anonymity of being behind the camera! I must confess I do too, although on most trips I will ask my husband to take at least one photo of me, if only to proof that I was actually there too! As he is not the most talented or motivated photographer (and I am not too confident about any image of me, LOL), I seldom like the pictures he takes of me enough to scrap with them!

But, as Cyndi wrote a few weeks ago in this What Matters Monday Post, you ARE part of you family and your family history and you SHOULD include yourself in your layouts!

You could of course choose to have your portrait professionally done, but my solution is: TAKE SELF PORTRAITS! The good thing is, you can take as many as you like, until you have one you can be happy with! I do have a tripod and a self timer on my camera myself, but I’ve mainly used mirrors and windows to do these self portraits! You can even hide behind the camera if you feel you need to! Or you can focus on part of you, and leave the rest slightly blurry!

So this week my challenge for you is: Be brave, find a well lit mirror in your house, make sure you’re on your own and try to take some photos of yourself! You will not receive any points from me, but your family will love seeing pages about YOU in the family album!

Here are a few examples of self portraits I’ve taken in the past: (How brave am I, showing these to the world!)

Hope you’ll have some fun! Can’t wait to see your images in the Gallery!

Hello Henriëtte here with this months photo challenge!

Let’s start with announcing the winner from the January challenge, the goal was to let your photo subject really stand out and Jude achieved this with this more than gorgeous picture:

Congrats Jude!

Thank you all for your beautiful pictures and layouts for last months challenge. I know it wasn’t an easy challenge and I was overwhelmed by so many wonderful entries, thanks a bunch!! 
And as the last couple of challenges were more or less for digital camera’s here is a challenge for all.

It is not a tutorial this month, but a subject:

Because it is Valentine in February I would like you to make a picture of a heart, but to make it a little bit more difficult (and here is the catch) it should not be a red heart and the heart should not be made of plastic, that should narrow down the field at least a bit.

So anything goes as long as it is not a red plastic heart. You can be creative and “make” your own heart or just make a photo of an allready existing heart, it is all up to you!

Here goes my try:

And here are the great entries from Monique (Monsu), two of Littlehiccup (Mary), Brittney (Britt) and Christine (alamama). I just love their creative and fun photo’s, thanks ladies!

Oooh and Britt made hers with the self-timer and alamama want you all to know that …no good coffee was used or harmed in this project!

(And for those who never played before: it should be a new picture (and layout) especially made for this challenge, only one picture and one layout are elegible for a point, and the picture should be posted in the appopriate gallery and linked back to the appropriate tread)

Have fun and have a great Valentine!

Henriëtte

Hello Henriëtte here and it’s time for this months photo challenge, but first let me thank you for all your beautiful family, friends or weddingpictures of a group of people. I really enjoyed each and every one of them and the beautiful layouts you made. Ofcourse we have a winner this month and that is: markyzmom, Chelle with this adorable picture:

They are so cute! Great lighting & composure; and I love the sheep too!
I know a group of two isn’t a very large group; but the pose, the looks and all the great props made this such a wonderful picture, I just love it!
Congrats to you Chelle!

On to this months challenge: make your photo subject really stand out

Great photography subjects are all around us. You don’t have to go far to find interesting people, flowers, or wildlife. The real test is to use your skills to create a photo with genuine impact.
How do you make your subject really stand out in a photograph? You need to know that a more expensive camera will not automatically make you a better photographer. In truth, the techniques in this article will work for almost any camera. All you need are manual aperture and shutter speed settings, and a decent zoom lens.

Here are a few simple tips for adding impact to your subject.

Tip #1.
Highlight A Brightly Lit Subject Against A Dark Background. If you are shooting a subject in full sunlight, with a shady background, the subject is always going to stand out. This is a simple principle to understand, but it is a little easier said than done.

When your photograph has two very different levels of light, the lightmeter in your camera can be confused. It may expose for the dark background, causing your subject to be overexposed. The trick is to expose for the subject.

You can’t do this on automatic. What you need to do is switch your camera to manual, and adjust the aperture and/or shutter speed settings until the photo is underexposed by one or two stops (according to the lightmeter). When you get the balance right, you should have a dark background and a perfectly exposed subject.

Here is my go on tip #1:

Tip #2.
Use A Small Depth Of Field To Blur The Background. You have seen plenty of photos where the subject is sharp and clear, but the rest of the picture completely out of focus. You will find this an easy way to add impact to the subject, and a three-dimensional effect to your whole photo.

To achieve this, you use a combination of a large lens and a wide aperture. First, zoom in on the subject with your largest magnification. This will naturally reduce the depth of field. Then adjust the aperture to its widest setting. A wide aperture will reduce the depth of field even further.

The closer you are to the subject the more pronounced the effect becomes.

Here is my go on tip #2:

I used a lens from 18-55mm (the only lens I have btw ) and just fiddled around with the settings till I got this. If anyone is interested my settings were: F4,5 shutterspeed 1/60 and ISO 1600.

Tip #3.
Use A Wide Angle Lens To Exaggerate Perspective, if you have one. This technique is almost the opposite of Tip #2. A wide angle lens makes everything in your photo appear much smaller, so objects in the distance seem much further away than they really are. Meanwhile, you can stand very close to a subject in the foreground (a person, animal etc) and still fit it in the frame.

As a result, your close-up subject will appear to tower over a background in which everything else seems very small and distant. Although the surroundings will be mostly in focus (the wide angle lens has a much larger depth of field), they will seem relatively small and insignificant, making your subject seem larger and more dominant by comparison.

I would love to show you an example for this tip too, but I don’t have a wide angle lens myself.

So there you have three fairly simple ways to add impact to the subject in your photos.
The great thing is, you don’t need a professional camera to try these ideas out. As said earlier, if you have a zoom lens, and manual control of your aperture and shutter speed, you can add impact to your photos with just a little practice.

Even better, in the age of digital photography, practice costs nothing…so get out there and start snapping!

From an article by Andrew Goodall (picturecorrect.com)

Well it sounds so simple, right  ? Not really I agree, but after reading this tutorial it got a lot clearer to me too  : http://www.photoxels.com/tutorial_aperture.html
It got me practising and it made me understand my camera and the terms shutterspeed and apeture better than ever before!

And here are the beautiful entries of the creative team; both such adorable pictures.

This one is from Brittney, she used here depth of field to make everything but the subject’s face out of focus.
 

And this one is from Stacy, she used a shallow depth of field.
 

Henriëtte

Nope, this doesn’t involve screaming kids!  (If any of you have a solution to that I’m all ears!!)    I’m talking about those annoying tiny specks of random color that show up in an image.  It’s basically the digital equivalent of film grain.  Have you ever uploaded your pictures from your camera and opened them up thinking they look awesome only to zoom in and find they don’t look so awesome anymore?  This has happened to me more times than I’d like to admit!  Here’s a picture I took of my daughter this past summer.

It looks okay until you zoom in (or print!)

Eeeeeek!  Well there are a few solutions.  First of all, try to avoid it in the first place.

“Shoot at the lowest possible ISO – Your ISO setting controls how sensitive your CCD or CMOS sensor is to light (digital film speed). The higher the number, the more sensitive it is and the less light you need to get a photo.  However, the higher you set your ISO, the more noise you pick up. So, always shoot with the lowest setting possible. If your camera has an “auto ISO” feature, use it – this will keep the ISO as low as possible. As the light gets brighter or darker, it adjusts your ISO automatically.

Shoot at higher shutter speeds – If you stick your camera on a tripod and try some long exposures, you’ll probably notice a nasty increase in noise – especially if you’re shooting at a higher ISO.  If you need to take long exposures, you should probably experiment with different ISO / shutter speed combinations to see what you can get away with. You don’t want the noise to get out of control and get all wild on ya.

Digital Zoom – Here’s yet another reason why not to use your digital zoom – it can add extra “noise” to your photos. Since a digital zoom is forced to create pixels where none exist, it can’t help but add to the noise problem.”

(I found this all these suggestions here.)

What if, despite doing everything you can, you still end up with some noise in the photo? Well, Photoshop and PSE have “de-noising” filters that are supposed to help, but to be honest they are pretty pitiful in my opinion.  I could hardly see any difference at all even at the highest settings!  So I did a little online research and found NeatImage. I have been using this plug-in for Photoshop for a little over a year and I am so impressed!  Check out some of my results:

Sooooo much better!  Now if you don’t have Photoshop or PSE that’s okay, because NeatImage is also available as stand-alone software, which means anyone can use it.  Unfortunately it’s not a free program but there are free demos available.  Click here for a Windows Demo and here for a Mac Demo. I hope this helps reduce the noise in your life, well the digital kind anyway!  Have a great day!  Jeni Hopewell.

Hello everyone, Henriëtte here with this months photo challenge.

Before we go to the challenge part let me first thank you for all your entries and announce the winner of the month November:

That is Heidi (Srappurple) with this warm and beautiful picture!

I love the angle, the quality and the reflection of the flame, just gorgeous.
You can congratulate Heidi here: http://scrapmatters.com/forums/showthread.php?t=991&page=5!

I am ashamed to say but I forgot to announce the winner of the month October in my previous post, I so hope she forgive me for that.
But without further ado the winner of that month is Melanie3boys with this precious picture:

 It is such a great shot and I love the story the picture is telling!
And all that with her, as she said herself: “crappy-ole point and shoot” camera !
You can congratulate Melanie here: http://scrapmatters.com/forums/showthread.php?t=691&page=12

 Congrats ladies!!

And here is the challenge for the coming month:

With Christmas coming up soon and the family close together it is the perfect time for: group photos!!

I know it isn’t easy to make that perfect picture because there is always someone blinking or looking away. Sometimes there are different moods (some smiling, some serious, some playing up to the camera etc) and even worse someone is not in the picture as a whole person but “chopped “ at the feet or head ! While there will always be such challenges with group photos there are a number of things you can do to help improve your chances of getting the shot you’re after:

1. Prepare
There is nothing that will make of people posing for a photograph turn upon you faster than you not being prepared. People don’t like to be kept waiting so think ahead about some of the following aspects of your photo:

• search for a location of your shot before hand
• Choose a position where your group will fit, where there is enough light for the shot and where there are no distractions in the background
• also avoid setting up a group shot directly in front of a window where the light from your flash might reflect back in a way that destroys your shot
• think ahead about how you will pose people and frame your shot
• make sure your camera is on and has charged batteries

2. Take Multiple Shots
One of the best ways to avoid the problems of not everyone looking just right in a shot is to take multiple photos quickly. If you have this setting on your camera switch it into continuous shooting mode (sport mode) when taking group shots and shoot in short bursts of shots.
Also mix up the framing of your shots a little if you have a zoom lens by taking some shots that are at a wide focal length and some that are more tightly framed.

3. Get in Close
Try to get as close as you can to the group you’re photographing (without cutting some members of it out of course). The closer you can get the more detail you’ll have in their faces – something that really lifts a shot a lot.
If your group is a smaller one get right in close to them and take some head and shoulder shots. One effective technique for this is to get your small group to all lean their heads in close to enable you to get in even closer.

4. Pose the group
In most cases your group will pose itself pretty naturally (we’ve all done it before). Tall people will go to the back, short people to the front. But there are other things you can do to add to the photo’s composition:
If the event is centered around one or two people (like a wedding or a birthday) make them the central focal point by putting them right in the middle of the group (you can add variation to your shots by taking some of everyone looking at the camera and then everyone looking at the person/couple).
Tell everyone to raise their chins a little – they’ll thank you later when they see the shot without any double chins!

5. Think about Light
In order to get enough detail in your subjects you need to have sufficient light. The way you get this varies from situation to situation but consider using a flash if the group is small enough and you are close enough for it to take effect – especially if the main source of light is coming from behind the group.
If it’s a bright sunny day and the sun is low in the sky try not to position it directly behind you or you’ll end up with a collection of squinting faces in your shot.

6. Use a Tripod
There are a number of reasons why using a tripod when taking photographs of groups can be useful. Firstly a tripod communicates that you’re serious about what you’re doing and can help you get their attention (it’s amazing what a professional looking set up can make people do). Secondly it gives you as the photographer more freedom to be involved in the creation of the posing of your subjects. Set your camera up on your tripod so that’s ready to take the shot in terms of framing, settings and focus and then it will be ready at an instant when you get the group looking just right to capture the moment.

12. Smile
Yes YOU should smile ! There’s nothing worse than a grumpy stressed out photographer. Have fun and enjoy the process of getting your shots and you’ll find the group will too, it really does work.

Here are the beautiful picttures from our awesome creative team:

This one is from Britt

And this one from Monsu

Here are mine tries, one is with Sinterklaas and his helpers, the Dutch Santa which is celebrated on December the 5th (the helpers are supposed to get black from the chimneys they put the gifts in; just in case you were wondering why they look so strangly brown/black) and the other one is with our family and a friend of Joris who just happened to be with us when I forced them into a group for a picture !

Hope to see your entries in the gallery and remember; if you scrap your picture you will get an extra point!!

Henriëtte