Bargain Alert!!

     Amazon is offering Photoshop Elements 10 for $63.99  HERE.  This is a whole bunch of editing power for a very reasonable price.  I highly recommend Elements for novice photographers who are looking to upgrade from Picasa.  Photoshop Elements consists of three different editing modes for beginner, intermediate, and advanced users, so it grows with you as you advance in your abilities.
     If you are getting into Elements for the first time, visit Adobe TV's learning center for lots of great online tutorials to help get you started....   Adobe TV
     I still use Elements 10 coupled with Lightroom 3, it's a very powerful combination.

Tim

Just Swinging

My youngest daughter enjoying her favorite activity.

1/800th, f2.8, iso 200

photo jabber blog by tim wyler

easy tips and techniques for making better family photos

basic photography tips for beginner dslr shooters

Cropping for Composition

     Straight out of the camera, a digital image is typically recorded in a 2 x 3 ratio, and can therefore be printed as 4 x 6, or any multiple thereof, without any modification.  However, printing to any other ratio, such as 5x7 or 8x10, will obviously require some cropping of the photo to the appropriate dimensions.  But cropping is not just for print preparation.  The Crop Tool is actually the single most effective tool in your post-processing arsenal for altering the overall look of your images.  A little bit of cropping can completely change the composition of a photo, and even provide several very different looks from a single image.

     Experiment with different shapes, sizes, angles and compositions.  Try non-standard ratios, like 1x1 or 16x9.  You may even find that you can give an old photo a brand new look!

Tim

photo jabber blog by tim wyler

beginner tips for new dslr photographers

better family photography

More Softball Fun

Here's a link to a previous post I did about shooting my kids' softball games- LINK

     I had a chance to shoot a few more softball game pics the other night.  It was a late game so I ran out of light pretty quick, but I was able to get the first inning.  This is my seven-year-old's team, a fun age to watch.  The girls are really just starting to figure things out and get a little bit of an understanding of the game.  

     I shot the batters from my usual spot, near the first base line dugout.  Should have worn a helmet as I nearly took a foul ball to the head!  These were shot at f2.8 in Aperture Priority mode, which at ISO 400, gave me a shutter speed of around 1/800th.  I used continuous focus so I could track the players as they ran to first base.  

If you're a softball Mom or Dad with a camera, there are a few more tips back on that previous post-

 HERE

Tim

photo jabber blog by tim wyler

basic photography tips

for taking better family photos

Odds & Ends

     I've been out of pocket the last few days and have not done any posting.  I just have a couple of odds and ends to contribute today....

     First- Apple's Photo Stream.  This is really cool!  ( that is to say, it's cool if you are an iPhone / iPad / iPhoto user )   In case you're not familiar...  Photo Stream is a part of Apple's iCloud.  It's a very simple way to share your iPhone photos to your iPad, Mac, or to other iPhone users on your account.

Here's how it works.  Just go into your iCloud settings and turn on the Photo Stream.  Now when you take photos with your iPhone, or add photos to the Camera Roll, those photos will automatically be copied to your Photo Stream album in the cloud. (photos will only go up to the cloud when connected to wifi)  When you open the Photo Stream album on your iPad or in iPhoto, your latest iPhone pics are there!  This works great if you have other iPhone users on your iCloud account.  For example....  My wife and I use the same iCloud account so we can share pictures automatically.  When either of us takes a photo with our iPhone, the photo automatically appears in the Photo Stream which we can view via iPhone or iPad.  It's great when I'm traveling and she wants to share new pics of the kiddos.  She doesn't have to email me the photos, they just magically appear in my Photo Stream.  The Photo Stream will keep only your last 1000 photos, so it is not a replacement for permanent backup.  But it's easy and free, so I like it.



     Second-  A quick portrait tip.....  The camera looks both ways.   You've possibly heard this, or perhaps some other rendition of it before.  It's a commonly shared tip because it's very very true.  Your mood, expression, and emotion will be reflected by your subject, just like a mirror.  This is especially true when photographing kids.  If you want joyous, laughing, excited, smiley expressions- you've got to set the tone.  It's not 100% effective 100% of the time, but it's close.


     Lastly-  Here's a photo of a friend and her daughter that I took last Fall.  Taken at my favorite time of day, the early evening sunlight angling in from behind them is providing the accent lighting.  Fill light is coming in from my speed light positioned camera left. And I think I have mentioned before that some of my favorite portraits are the ones in which the subjects are not looking at the camera.....

Hope you like,
Tim

photo jabber blog by tim wyler

basic photography tips for new dslr owners

simple techniques for taking better family photos