First a little background.

As an avid picture taker, I learned early on that unless I had a way to organize my pictures, I would find it increasingly difficult to keep track of my growing collection of photographs.

Although I’ve been taking pictures on film since the 1960’s, it wasn’t until 1998 that I began my digital collection. I discovered a software program called Thumbs Plus for the PC and have been using it regularly to catalog and manage more than 100,000 of my digital photos. By adding keywords to an individual photo, I am able to easily and conveniently locate and retrieve photos from the past. Thumbs Plus has dozens of other useful features but for my purposes, organizing is its most important feature. For the past decade Thumbs Plus (and 3 or 4 upgrades) has been one of the most used programs on my computer.
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Portraits are one the most common type of photographs. We’d like to share some tips for taking better people pictures.

Direction of the Light Shooting people outdoors offers a wide variety of lighting. Observe and take advantage of the direction from which it is falling on your subject.
Here the lighting originates predominantly from behind the subject. This backlighting produces shadows on much of the girl’s face.	For this shot, we turned the subject slightly so that the light is coming from the side. By doing this, we have added a more “rounded” and fuller look to the facial features.

Portraits are the most common type of photographs. We’d like to share some of our know-how for taking better people pictures.

Lighting Tricks Portraits are usually composed using soft, even lighting. However, you can put strong and high contrast lighting to good use by carefully posing your subject.
This photo was taken in the shade where the light was soft. This type of lighting made the young girl’s skin tones equally soft.	Here, I’ve placed the subject in a location that has strong side lighting. I like the effect on the highlighted side of the face. Take care not to overexpose the highlights.

Taking pictures of kids is one of the most popular uses for digital cameras. From time to time, we’ll present tips for taking better kids pictures.

Fill the Frame When shooting portraits, the usual tendency is to carefully frame the subject in the viewfinder.
In this snapshot, we’ve left an even border around the head and upper body of the child. It makes for a nicely framed shot although the background is a little distracting.	For this shot, we moved in closer to fill the viewfinder with the child’s head. There is almost no border around the photo, yielding a more dramatic view of the child.

These days, there are plenty of ways to share your photos across the Internet. One of the easiest, flexible and attractive ways is to get a free account at Jalbum.net.

The people at Jalbum have been making photo sharing software for several years now. Originally, you needed your own web server in order to take advantage of the jalbum software. However, they now offer 30MB of free space that you can leverage to share your memories across the Internet.
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For me, the music of Gordon Lightfoot’s music tells interesting stories all the while his soothing melodies and talented guitar-playing have kept my attention for more than 40 years. With camera in hand, we went to hear him perform again in concert at the lovely DeVos Hall here in Grand Rapids.

Concerts and Stage Productions
Concerts and stage productions are most often set against very dark backgrounds such as this one. Since the camera sets the exposure by averaging the amount of light in a scene, a brightly lighted face is often overexposed.	The easiest way to prevent the performer’s face from being washed out is to reduce the exposure. For this shot, I used the camera’s exposure compensation to make a -2 (f/stop) adjustment. The face is now clearly visible.

Note: this article was adapted from an earlier one published in March 2010.

So many new and amazing digital cameras, lenses and accessories seem to appear daily that I can’t help but feel overwhelmed with difficult choices about where to invest my hard earned cash in the name of better photography. When I see an announcement for a new camera with its tantalizing machine gun-like frames-per-second or super-fast auto-focusing ability my hands start to get itchy at the thought of feeling a new, sleek camera body; handling a bright, shiny lens or setting up a slick tripod head.

The problem is that I start feeling guilty when the itching starts. Why am I adding to the inventory of photo equipment when I already have an ample supply? I know a few other “collectors of photo equipment” and like them, the compelling draw of the latest and greatest is not unlike the effect that drugs have on an addict.

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Over the past few weeks we’ve been preparing our popular DSLR Stay Focused Guides for the iPad. Starting today, you can now get any of these five apps immediately through iTunes.

Canon XS Canon XSi Nikon D40 Nikon D60 Nikon D3000 Canon T2i (coming soon) Nikon D5000 (coming soon)

Each app presents dozens of easy-to-follow chapters for taking even better photos. We show you both the “before” and “after” pictures and the fully illustrated camera settings that will turn your snapshots into gallery quality photographs. For the iPad, our full-color, 180-page books with easy-to-use navigation, fast thumbnail access and instant bookmarking for recalling your place give you a very convenient way to take it with you. 

You can purchase any of these apps from iTunes and going to our iPad Apps.

If you’d rather read the printed versions of these books, please click here.

We’re excited. We’ve released all of our SF Guides for five popular DSLRs as apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Canon XS Canon XSi Nikon D40 Nikon D60 Nikon D3000

Each is a complete a 180-page book filled with before and after techniques showing you how to take even better photos. The apps feature easy-to-use navigation, thumbnails and bookmarking for finding and recalling your place. And the iPhone or iPod Touch give you a very convenient way to take it with you. You can purchase any of these apps from iTunes.

If you’d rather read the printed versions of these books, please click here.

Here in Michigan, we still have an abundance of snow. Rather than lock ourselves inside, we’ve decided to brave the winter weather and “enjoy”. After all, there’s plenty of life in the brisk cold.

Winter Wonderland
Here Kris is celebrating the completion of her snowman. Although the sun is shining, the yard is in the shade of the trees thereby keeping her face in the shade.	Simply by using the camera’s exposure compensation and increasing the exposure by +1, we’ve reduced the effect of the shade and made her smile standout more.