 |
November 20, 2009 |
  |
Created and Maintained by: The Photoimaging Information Council |
|
|
Columns |
|
 SHARING PHOTOS By SHARING photos with friends and relatives, the most important relationships in your life grow richer. One of the best ways to share photos at this time of year is to make your own holiday cards using photos of family and loved ones. There are dozens of ways to do it and several are outlined below.
GIVING PHOTO BOOKS AND EQUIPMENT By GIVING the gift of photography -- even gifts as inexpensive as a single-use camera or several rolls of film - you help family and friends make their lives richer, more colorful and memorable. For help with this, check out PIC Picks, TakeGreatPictures descriptions of exciting new photo products.  TAKING BETTER HOLIDAY PHOTOS Holiday photography starts early with the production of your family's annual photo holiday card. Pick a day when the whole gang is on hand, and try to arrange a holiday-like backdrop. The Thanksgiving weekend is good because Mom, Dad and the kids are usually all collarable, and Thanksgiving is far enough in advance that your photo lab will have time to produce the cards. More importantly: you'll have plenty of time to address and mail them.
 Ofoto.com is one of the many internet sites that can help you make and mail beautiful holiday greeting cards. Can't think of an appropiate backdrop for your holiday card? Try your home. While it may not be decked out in its full holiday splendor at Thanksgiving, its facade can probably be pressed into cheery service without much ado. Spruce up the front door with a wreath or place candles in the windows and make your familiy portrait after dark. There's an added advantage to the after-dark approach: you can shoot in August if you like and no one will be the wiser. Just make sure the candles show. If the house doesn't work, decorate the family instead. Reindeer antlers or Santa hats will do the trick..
 Events & Destinations Many communities hold holiday fairs that start on or around Thanksgiving. Visit one. You'll find holiday props for your family portrait, and perhaps an appropriate background for it, too. Check out TakeGreatPictures's monthly calendar of photogenic happenings for holiday fairs in your neck of the woods. Be sure to check our "Events & Destinations" Calendar.
Where will you get your holiday cards printed? Try a local minilab. Prices are reasonable, starting at about $1 each for 25 cards (with envelopes). Order more and the price drops. A number of online services such as ofoto.com and hallmarkstories.com will produce holiday cards from an image that you upload, and imprint them with standard or personalized messages. Some of these online services will mail the cards, too, usually at no additional expense above the federally required postage.  TIP: Involve the whole family in your holiday photography. Give the kids single-use cameras and make them responsible for your holiday album or scrapbook. While small children tend to waste a lot of film (don't worry, it's cheap), they also can capture many priceless moments. Do you have an elderly parent or relative who avoids being photographed? Someone who rarely pops a smile when a camera is brought out? Often, that relative will light up radiantly...if the photographer is a four year old.
TIP: Check that your camera is in good working order Shoot a test roll of film, trying each of its features. Assure yourself that each subsystem is functioning, including the flash, film advance, and exposure. Next, find your camera's instruction booklet, and go through it to brush up on your camera's features. Pay special attention to the flash and exposure modes. The Slow Synch or Night flash mode, for example, can greatly improve your nighttime and indoor photos.  TIP: Make sure that you have plenty of film and batteries on hand. If you'll be using a video camera, charge up the batteries and have an adequate store of blank tapes ready for action.
 Which 35mm film is best for capturing your holiday memories? Today's ISO 800 high-speed color negative films are a good choice. They include Fujifilm's Superia Xtra, Kodak's Versatility Plus, Agfa's Vista 800 Max , and Konica's Centuria 800. These films reproduce color beautifully, with remarkably fine grain and resolution for their speed.  TIP: Grab a few single-use cameras for the kids to play with over the holidays. Single-use cameras can also be fun if you're throwing a holiday bash. Give one to each partygoer and collect the cameras afterwards. You'll have more than enough pictures to create a great photo album commemorating your bash TIP: When shooting indoors, use your camera's "Night" flash mode, even if you're shooting in broad daylight. The "Night" mode (sometimes called "Slow Sync") will assure plenty of holiday background detail makes it into your photos. The portrait of this young man, for example, shows lights from the Christmas tree beyond, which might not have appeared if the photographer hadn't used the flash's Night mode. When using this setting, try to hold the camera as still as possible, and tell your subjects to stand very still. Shutter speeds can be as slow as 1/2 second, and if either the camera or subject moves, blur could mar your pictures.
 8 More Tips for Better Holiday Photos 1. Turn your camera's flash on, even when shooting outdoors. It will assure maximum detail in any shadows.
2. Press the shutter release gently and hold the camera steady. Have you had too much coffee to drink? Do you have a case of the jitters? Prop yourself against a wall, and fire the shutter using the camera's self timer. It allows you to take a picture without pressing the release and possibly jiggling the camera. 3. Shoot plenty of background detail...closeups of gifts, ornaments, etc. Every picture you take doesn't have to be a Norman Rockwell family masterpiece. Background shots will help set the mood in a holiday album or scrapbook. This angel, for example... 4. Plan time for a group portrait of the entire clan. Don't put it off. Instead, announce your intentions so all the "victims" are prepared. Do it as soon as everyone is on hand, before Uncle Fred spills gravy on his white shirt. 5. When you're ready with the family portrait, use your camera's self timer feature and get yourself in the shot. 6. Are you sharing the holidays with young children? The best way to capture perfect still photos of their holiday expressions is, believe it or not, with a camcorder...a digital camcorder. Use one that lets you record in such high resolution that individual frames can be selected and afterward printed as still photos. As long as the camcorder is on, you'll probably have captured the perfect moment. And don't forget when shooting youngsters to drop down to your knee and get on their eye level. 7. Avoid taking pictures of people talking...unless you want something comical. Invariably, when you shoot while people are talking, their mouths will be open and their expressions unflattering. 8. Finally, we know you've heard it a million times, BUT: when shooting outdoors, keep the sun to your back.  DIGITAL PHOTO SHARING Once you've gotten a handful of holiday photos together, consider posting them online for friends and relatives across the country to share. It's easier if you're shooting with a digital camera, but really anyone can have their pictures easily and inexpensively digitized today. Check with your local minilab for details. Once you're ready, upload your a digital holiday album to Kodak.com, ofofo.com or snapfish.com, just a few of the many photo sharing sites. The best part? Once your pictures up uploaded and your relatives see how cool they are, you can hope that other family members will upload theirs as well. It's a satisfying way to unite your far-flung loved ones through photography.
 If bits and bytes just aren't your thing then you might try this. Another, less high tech way of sharing is the ever-popular scrapbook. If you're making a holiday scrapbook, collect documents and mementos, in addition to photos. Keep your eyes open for scrapbookable items. Years from now, those Letters to Santa, scraps of wrapping paper, and Nutcracker programs will be priceless. Never scrapbooked? Get yourself up to speed by visiting a local crafts shop. You'll be pleasantly surprised by the selection of special scissors, tapes, and rubber stamps, among other scrapbooking paraphrenalia, at your disposal. One suggestion: Pick the album before you begin shooting. Camera shops and art supply houses offer hundreds of attractive scrapbooks and photo albums. To assure that your photos won't stain or fade, buy only albums described as "archival." Also, keep in mind that some smaller albums are designed to accept mainly horizontal pictures. If such an album appeals to you, shoot only horizontals, obviously.
 GIVING PHOTO GIFTS Few gifts deliver as much bang for your holiday-gift-giving buck as photography. Photo albums filled with pictures from a shared outing, wedding, dinner party, or vacation are both inexpensive and they make very personal gifts for family and friends. Have you known someone for dozens of years? Pull together as many pictures of them as you can find from across the decades, and paste them into a single album. What could be more personal?
Albums like the Kolo Vineyard (shown right) are attractive, inexpensive and, because they accept only about a dozen 4x6-inch photos, they're easy to fill. Look for them in Staples, Kate's Papers or online at www.artsuppliesonline.com. Click here for more info. Framed portraits of family members also make great personalized gifts that can be displayed to attractive and homey effect on pianos, bookshelves and dresser tops. Framed portraits needn't be large. In fact, smaller is often better, even something as small as a locket. Who wouldn't cherish a photo locket encasing the picture of a loved one? You can find an inexpensive new locket in a gift or jewelry shop, or an antique locket at a flea market. Either way, the cost can be very reasonable, and the impact large.  PHOTO BOOKS Lastly, don't forget photo books. This year's crop of coffee table and photo how-to books is one of the most eye-catching in years. The following are just a few of what's available. Check your local bookstore or with online retailers like amazon.com. The selection here proves again that photography can make your holiday season truly memorable, at a cost that won't break the bank.  Earth From Above Fantastic photos of our planet as seen from on high.
by Herve Le Bras & Yann Arthus-Bertrand
 Form and Fashion Outrageous fashion photography from one of the world's greatest, Sheila Metzner
 Kodak's Professional Photoguide It never goes out of print. The one reference resource for every serious shutterbug.
 The Complete Guide to Night & Low Light Photography By Lee Frost 101 Essential Photography Tips by Michael John Langford and Deni Bown
 Edward Steichen: The Early Years Published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
© 2002 - 2009 Take Great Pictures |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
