As much as I love the endless number of sophisticated topics to discuss in photography, I felt it might be appropriate to start off on a more basic level. Photography is such a beautiful blend of art and science, but it can be frustrating to many people if it doesn't yield the results they want or expect. This frustration leads to disengagement, oftentimes, so I feel like if I can help provide any insight as to why some of these outcomes exist, others will be less likely to become discouraged and subsequently be more apt to appreciating the various wonderful elements and nuances of photography. I tried to think of some questions or issues that people have asked about or that I have seen in photos to offer some guidance on.
1. "My picture is blurry, what gives?"
A picture will be blurry due to the presence of motion, and that motion can come from either the subject of the photo or the photographer. Generally people understand that if a subject moves a photo will come out blurry, but it's not as often they will think that the photographer is the cause. Holding the camera still is key, of course. I know my mother had the tendency to push the entire camera down when she pressed the shutter release rather than holding the camera still and only pressing her finger gently on the button. The downside of the point and shoot cameras of today are that they are very light, which makes them much harder to keep steady, and many opt for an LCD screen only and not a viewfinder. Always take advantage of a viewfinder if you can because it adds a third point of contact with you body to stabilize the camera. If that is not an option, try holding the camera closer to your body rather than extending your arms, as this will also help.
2. "My picture is all grainy!"
The grain in your picture comes from using a higher ISO setting. ISO allows you to take a picture in lower light, but you sacrifice sharpness and picture quality in the process (to give a simplistic version). Think film speed, if you are a film person. Higher film speeds allowed you to take photos in lower light or at faster speeds, but it introduces more grain into the photo. Okay, so that is great and all, but how do you get around this? Well, if you are shooting with your camera on Auto mode, many times it will pick a higher ISO than needed and offset it elsewhere in its settings. What you can do is go into your camera's settings and manually reduce the ISO before taking your photo. Just be careful that the outcome will likely be you needing to hold your camera more still, as your shutter will be open longer and be more susceptible to camera movement. The other thing to do, if possible is to add more lighting to your shot so the camera won't (hopefully) select such a high ISO for you. And, unfortunately, it could be the case where the scene is simply too dark to take a shot with your camera without getting a lot of grain. It won't hurt to try changing your settings, though, before giving up.
3. "The flash is way too bright!"
Flash can be one of the most frustrating elements of photography to learn about or deal with. It's a big weakness of mine in the DSLR realm, as I have never had any exposure to it there. With point and shoots, the camera tends to get very eager to put flash in all your photos on auto settings. Your first solution is to simply turn flash off altogether. Sometimes that will be appropriate for the scene. Other times, though, flash is needed, but you may not be able to adjust the intensity of your flash. What you can do in this situation is to try and evenly cover the flash directly with a translucent material. One good option is the cloudy type of scotch tape. It will stay secured in place and diffuse the flash while still providing a source of light. You can try other objects, such as a piece of paper, but it is important to have it up against the flash and not tilted; if you fail to do this, you're just going to bounce the flash in one direction and you won't get the desired outcome. Tape is definitely the best option, though.
4. "My images are too shadowy outside."
This one is going to sound counter intuitive, but turn on your flash. I know, I know, why would you need the flash if you're outside in the sun? Well, because if there are shadows on the subject's face, it means they are backlit, and you camera is assessing the exposure of the scene, which is very bright. Consequently, it closes the shutter quickly, and there is not enough exposure of the person's face. Now, you can elect to change the composition of the photo by taking it from another direction, but that is not always preferable, either to avoid a squinting subject or because you want to capture the background you had laid out. This is where flash helps. Your camera is still able to capture the image quickly and keep proper exposure on the background, but the flash will also illuminate the subjects face so it doesn't remain in the shadows. Using flash outdoors is actually a great technique, as the white light that can tend to show up in flash photos is neutralized by the ambient light.
Feel free to ask any questions in the comments or by using the Contact Me section on the page.
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