Taking Pictures At Day

Since I showed tips for taking pictures at night, I think it is only logic that show you tips for taking pictures at day too.

When you are taking pictures at the day, remember to watch for the exposure. Sometime we tend to shoot the pictures without adjusting the exposure. This can cause your pictures to look blown out even you are keeping the exposure meter at normal.

Luckily, we are in the era of digital photography. You can always change the exposure and take the pictures. Imagine when you were in the film photography time. You probably have to waste a precious shot and be upset for days.

Another thing you need to look after when you are taking pictures at day is your digital camera lens. This is because lenses are actually sensitive to sun light. Excessive sun light can damage the lenses.

So, when you are taking pictures for sun rise and sun set, try to avoid pointing directly at the sun. If you need to work under a sunny day, remember to cover the lens and for compact digital camera user, remember to off your camera so that the lens can be hidden.

Lastly, try to take a break when you are taking pictures under the sun. It will cost you a lot of money to buy a new lens.

Happy taking pictures,

Michael Wong.

Taking Picture At Night

Even though you are equipped with flash, some time taking picture at night is not as easy as it seems. Due to the total dark environment, some time your pictures will appear blown out, a condition when your subjects' details are lost because of the strong intensity of flash.

If you really want to take picture at night, try to use external light source to illuminate your subjects before you take he pictures. If you can't do that, you can stand further from your subjects and zoom in on your subjects before you snap the picture. This will then spread the flash to a larger area instead of close proximity to your subjects.

However, things can be a lot easier if you are using DSLR camera where you can disperse your flash and reduce the intensity on your subjects.

But before you start taking pictures at night, have you ever thought of taking pictures at dusk?

During the dusk, the sky is relatively dark yet still provides enough sunlight for your pictures. At that time, you don't need to use external light source and you can minimize the use of flash. And when you are taking pictures with dim natural light, it will give you different feeling to your pictures.

However, dusk only last for a short time. So, you have to be well prepared and pre-frame your pictures before you take the shot. There are photographers who even go look at the scene days before the shoot. They want to experience the environment so that they can take better pictures when the day comes.

And to let you know, not many people practice taking pictures at dusk. And you are simply missing the beauty of it when you leave such beautiful moment at bay.

Try doing it sometimes,

Michael Wong.

Digital Photography Tip - Pay Attention To Your Subject

When you are taking picture, you will want to make sure you pay attention to your subjects. Whether they are your friends, pets or even a fruit bowl, they should be the main focus of your picture. You want to show their details and their uniqueness. So, below are some tips to help you on that.

1. Attention

Just like what I said, you have to focus on your subjects. At that moment, they deserve 120% of your attention. Period. So, before you go into the shooting, prepare yourself make yourself comfortable with the subjects.

2. Proximity

One of the ways to make your subjects stand out is to get in close to them. You just walk towards them or zoom in with your lens. Your main responsibility here is to fill your frame with your subjects or part of them.

3. Select your background

Often, your subjects will come to you in a way that is totally the opposite of how you have imagined it should be. For the case of a fruit bowl, you can always rearrange yourself to make it suit your photograph shooting.

How about people or pet?

The inexperienced might not notice it. But you probably will bang your head on the wall when you see your subjects appear like that. If that is the case, the only thing you can do is to match your subjects with the best background you can get.

And that is why it is probably a good idea to have some light back drop in your studio.

4. Be creative

For all you know, there is no law in digital photography that depicts you have to do this and that to get good pictures. It is purely base on how you feel you will want to take the pictures.

So, when you want something different from your pictures, try to change the angle and move your subjects when you are taking pictures.

And of course, there are more things you can do to bring out the detail of your subjects. Just keep practice with digital photography and you will be better with it.

Happy taking pictures,

Michael Wong.

4 Simple Digital Photography Tips

If you have much experience with digital photography, I think you don't need to read this. And if you just started out with digital photography, I understand how you feel when comes to taking pictures that you want. You probably have imagined how it should be but the end product is totally disappointing.

Hang in there. Actually, there are a lot of things that you can do to improve your pictures. You just need to try different thing to see which feel the best and below are 4 tips that you can experiment on to get a better picture.

1. It is important that you don't overpopulate your pictures. Many digital photography newbie like to put a lot of things in their pictures. You are only going to confuse your viewers when you do that.
So, be clear of your theme and what you are trying to communicate in your pictures.

2. Speaking of being clear with your theme, it is good that you can practice blurring your background when you are taking pictures. It is a common technique to remove disturbing information from the background.

You might not be able to master this immediately. So, give yourself more time to practice and read more about digital photography whenever you can.

3. When you are taking picture of people, try to take as much candid shot as possible.

You want to capture the light side of your subject especially this person is always serious and hardly smile.

Still, it is not to say that you can't take picture of serious people. President Obama does look good when he is serious while giving speech. But don't you feel he is more approachable when he is smiling and waving to the public?

4. The last tip for you to take home is about lighting. When you are in digital photography, it is best that you can take picture with proper exposure of lighting. So, it doesn't matter whether it is sunlight or artificial light in the studio. As long as your subjects are properly lit, then you are fine.

However, this doesn't apply to the flash that pops from your camera. This is because the intensity of the sudden lighting can make your subjects to look wash out if you can't control the flash properly.

So, that is all for today. Just digest what you have read and practice with digital photography.
Take more happy pictures,

Michael Wong.

Take Pictures With Low Ambient Light

All I can say is taking pictures with low ambient light is fun. It gives a whole different feeling then the day and night. I personally like the grey bluish view just after sunset and before the earth is totally consume by darkness.

And to help you get that new feeling, you just decrease the aperture, increase the ISO so that the camera is more sensitive to light. Then, you will want to increase the exposure time but slow down the shutter speed. All this process will then help to direct more light to the image sensor and give you a good picture even the ambient light is low.

I know you some of you might be confused with what I said, so here is a quick explanation:

• Increase ISO - increase camera sensitivity to light
• Increase aperture - increase exposure time and light entering camera
• Increase shutter speed - decrease light entering camera

So, Increase ISO + Increase aperture + Decrease shutter speed = More light enter the camera. I hope that is OK.

However, prolonging the exposure time make your pictures susceptible to vibration and your pictures can turn out 'shaken'. And to minimize these unsatisfactory pictures, you can either turn on the 'anti-handshake' feature in your digital camera or mount your camera on a tripod.

By the way, increasing ISO and exposure time can both introduce noise in your pictures. If the noise is unbearable, you probably will want to retake the picture or edit it with photo editing software.

As pretty as taking pictures under low light can seems, it does require more practice. One of the reasons is because this condition only last for a short time after sunset and it is easy to spoil the shot when you are unprepared for it.

Please understand this, it is common to take lousy pictures. In fact, that is how the professional photographers gone through. They took pictures and analyze what is good and what is bad with their pictures.

Just like Thomas Edison once said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." And you only need that one way to be good in digital photography.

Happy photographing,

Michael Wong.

How To Take Pictures Of Pets

Many people have taken pets as part of their life and it is not uncommon that you want to include your lovely pet in your pictures. However, taking pictures of your pet is certainly a challenging task because they can't take direction like people. You will have tougher time taking a snap your pet if it is active and always running around.

So, below are a few tips to help you take pictures of your pet.

1. Understand them

Since you are the master, you should be familiar with your pet behavior. You should know what ticks them and when they will be quite and cute. Once you know that, you will know how to lead your pet into the emotion.

You can wiggle a piece of feather in front of your cat to make it leap or capture its action to grab the feather with its paws. Don't you think it is kind of cute?

However, as much as you need to understand your pet to take its picture, sometime it can be fun to have one or two surprise shot from your pet. Although this might not sound proper, you can actually provoke (not getting yourself hurt of course) your pet to get its angry picture. This can be one of the abnormal pictures of your lovely pet.

2. Patience

Ever heard of "patience is the best virtue"? I think you have to hold on to that when you want that special shot of your pet. Sometime your pet will lay still and rest when you are expecting some action from it. And when you are tired of waiting and decided to snap the silent side of your pet, it suddenly sprung into action and spoils your frame.

It is like they know what you want and decided to make fun of you. I know how annoying that can be. Still, pets are unlike human subject, sometime you just have to follow their mood.

3. Look for emotion

Despite of what you might think, animals do express their emotion on their face. However, you probably only see that when you are familiar with them as your pet. I personally saw a stray cat showed its hungry face at me and I regretted that I didn't have my camera at that time. I believe it will be a good picture. But I still feed it, just incase you want to know.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is that pets only show their true emotion when they really mean it and that might take you some time before you can catch that in pictures.

4. Natural light

When you are taking pictures of your pet, remember to use natural light as much as you can. This is because the sudden burst of flash can startle your pet and make it uneasy for the rest of the photograph shoot.

By the way, animals' eyes don't share the same anatomy as human. It is very common to see red eyes when you flash on them.

5. Angle

Just like any digital photography tips told you before, you need to find an angle to bring out the uniqueness of your subject. And this goes the same with pet photography.

You can set your camera at ground and lead your pet to examine it. This is how the photographers get the curious expression of the pet with their head huge in the pictures. Or you can try standing taking the picture while your dog is sitting and looking up to you. You can get a better picture if you can get its sad puppy face into the picture.

Pets photography can be fun and you can make it even more enjoyable with some creativity during the shooting.

Happy taking picture with your pet,

Michael Wong.

3 Tips For Shooting Great Digital Photos

Do you feel something is missing with your pictures? You know that you are taking nice pictures but somehow you feel is not quite right. Right? And the worse thing is this unknown is bugging you whenever you look at your pictures. So, how do you overcome this annoying feeling?

When you are in digital photography, it is very important that you take note about the ISO setting. This setting is related to the camera's sensitivity for light. Generally, you will want to use low ISO setting for still pictures like fruit bowl or flower. Then you will want to use high ISO setting for moving pictures like waterfall or soccer player in a match.

And just to let you know, when you increase the ISO, you also are limiting the amount of light entering your digital camera. Hence, that will make your pictures look noiser.

Have you ever taken your pictures with the grid lines activated? Many photographers think that grid lines are a waste of time and the lines often annoy the view. As much as I have to admit that, I do believe that grid lines are a waste of time.

Still, they can be quite useful when you think something is wrong with your pictures. They might be your missing tool to great digital photos. Some time it is by having the grid lines as your guide, only then you will notice that your pictures are out of line. And by practicing with the grid lines, you will become better in framing your shot.

And when all else fails, your last resort is to put out your pictures and let other experience photographers critic your work. I know how that feels. No one likes to be critic by someone else.

Still, if you can let go of your artist ego (I am sorry if I offended you when I say that) and try to listen to the other photographers have to say, you will start to see the issues you have. If you can take and practice the experienced photographers' feedback, you will start to see the differences in your pictures.

I know you are comfortable with your style but sometime it is our own style that limits us from growing our skills. It is not like you will fail anyone when you try something new. You can always switch back if you prefer your own style.

But for the time being, just try...

Happy taking pictures

Michael Wong.

6 Amazing Landscape Photography Tips For You

As I promised, no more portrait photography tips today and I want to share some landscape tips with you. Landscape photography is about getting out, be close with the nature and capture the beauty of Mother Nature. I hope you will find the tips here useful,

1. Tripod

There will be time that you need to wait for the special shot. Imagine you are holding the camera while waiting for the special moment to appear. It can be really tiring when you are holding a DSLR camera.

Besides, tripod can add stability to your pictures. It certainly comes in handy when you are taking picture with low ambience light because the increase aperture size is going to affect the stability of your pictures. So, it is good that you can mount your camera on a tripod when you are taking landscape pictures.

2. Wide angle lens

You probably have seen some landscape pictures where the scenery extends to the far end of the horizon. Now, if you are using a normal lens, you probably will have a hard time figuring which part of the landscape you have to sacrifice so that you can fit the scene in your picture. It will take you some time and work even you decided to stitch your picture with photo editing software.

All of these can be avoided when you have a wide angle lens to capture the amazing landscape pictures. As the name implies, wide angle lens offer more field of view than normal lens so that it can take in more of the surroundings.

I know some of you might think that you will never enjoy good landscape pictures because you are using a point and shoot camera. Just incase you haven't know, more compact digital cameras with wide angle lens are coming out into the market nowadays. And if you are interested in that, you really have to take a look here.

3. Foregrounds

If you have been following this blog consistently, you will notice that I talk a lot about blurring the background (shallow depth of field) to bring out the detail of your subjects. That can be quite useful when you want to focus on something in the nature like a flower.

However, I think it is more appropriate to talk about foreground here. When you are with landscape photography, you can focus on something in front of you and let your picture extend to the far end of the landscape.

Imagine you are standing at the entrance of a valley and you are focusing on a rock pile in front of you and let the picture extend to the end of the valley. I know the picture can be boring because of less contrast in the picture but it is just the example that pops into my mind. I hope you get the picture of what I am trying to say here. :-)

4. Depth of field

While it is perfectly alright to have shallow depth of field in landscape photography, I personally prefer that I have deeper depth of field where I can see the whole landscape clearly.

To me, I like to have everything in focus in my landscape pictures. It is only then I can feel the overwhelming feeling of Mother Nature. And if you are just like me, you probably will not adjust the setting on your camera and take it as normal as you can.

5. Movement

Just to let you know, landscape photography is not just about still pictures. It is not just about the mesmerizing hills or the silent sun rise.

You can capture the water at the waterfall, waves at the sunny beach and moving clouds. And if you get to travel to Asia, try to look for beach with fishing boat and take the picture standing behind the boat. You want to have a part of the boat in your picture but giving attention to the coming waves.

This can be a wonderful picture.

6. Timing

Have you ever seen pictures that are taken at different timing? I personally think this is important when you are in landscape photography.

Just compare the pictures (at the same location) where one was taken during early morning and one was taken at the afternoon. You don't just see the differences in the pictures, you can even feel differently from the 2 pictures.

The early morning picture might tell you that the scenario is calm and comfortable. The afternoon picture might says that the location is hot and it going through a tough time. Many people might not like the afternoon picture due to its brightness.

The landscape photography tips I shared with you are purely personal preference. It is not the law to landscape photography. However, I will urge you to keep photographing and in the process, you will surely develop something that you like.

Happy taking pictures,

Michael Wong. :-)

2 Quick Portrait Photography Tips

What ?! Portrait photography tips again?! I know how you feel when you see the title. It seems that I never get enough with portrait photography. How can I? It is my favorite subject and I love it a lot. It is alright that you don't see eye to eye with me on this. If you think you had enough with portrait photography, please come back later. I promise that I will share something different in my next post. Until then, let's enjoy the tips for portrait photography. J

1. Simplicity

Have you heard of the quote "Simplicity is beauty and beauty is simplicity, nothing more, nothing less."? (Author unknown)

And that says it all for portrait photography because the art is supposed to highlight the beauty of your subject (at least I think it is supposed to do that). You should make the picture as simple as possible and focus only on your subject. You should use a plain background whenever is possible and when you are force to take portraits with distracting background, you will want to blur the background as much as you can.

2. Back lighting

As a photographer, you probably know that back lighting is terrible for portrait photography during outdoor. Your subjects will appear dark in the pictures and they will lose their details in the pictures. For some of you, it might mean total failure on the portraits.

Still, it is possible to rectify the problem by flashing on your subjects. But if you have look at pictures done with that technique, you might feel that the subjects glow in a different and awkward vibe.

How do you rectify this? But my question to you is, why do you want to rectify that?

Back lighting can actually add interest and different feeling to the portraits when you do it right.

The next time when you are taking a portrait, try to find an angle where your subjects almost block the light source. This will create a picture with ray of light showering your subjects while keeping most of their details.

A word of caution when you are doing this is that sometime the ray might become a sudden glare to your eyes. So, it is good that you can look into the LCD when you are composing the shoot instead of looking directly to your subjects.

Happy taking pictures,

Michael Wong. :-)

How Should A Professional Photographer Behave?

Besides having great photography skills, what does a professional photographer needs to bring his or her career to another level?

Personally, I think it is every important that a good photographer is willing to build rapport with the subjects. One of the reasons why some subjects give you awkward pose is because they felt uneasy with you. It is not that you are a bad person or what, it is because they don't know you and it is strange posing for a stranger. When that happens, your job is to close the gap between the two of you and make your subjects comfortable.

And when your clients are comfortable with you, they will take instruction better and be more open with you. They might even tell you which is their best angle and that can really make your job easier. After all, who knows your subjects better than themselves?

By the way, how can I forget to mention your personality? Always try to remember to put on a smiling face. Your subjects know that they give bad pictures and they feel guilty enough. They don't need your unhappy face to feel guiltier.

Just to remind you, you are in the people business and being nice with your clients is one of the ways to build your business.

Happy taking pictures,

Michael Wong. :-)

How To Get Nice Portrait Pictures?

I know portrait photography is addictive and fun. And looking at all the pictures you have taken, have you ever wonder that you can actually be better in portrait photography? If you are interested, below are some tips to share with you on portrait photography to help you take better portrait pictures.

1. Lighting

Most photographers agree that natural lighting is the best for photography however this can be different when you are indoor shooting for portrait photography. There are a lot of times that you will need help from artificial lighting to light up the subjects in a particular angle to bring out the certain shine of the subjects.

I understand that sometimes that you might need to take a few pictures before you can light up the subjects properly but I can assure you that this is only temporary. As you take more pictures and build your experience with portrait photography, you have easier time taking nice portraits.

2. Background

When you have dealt with the lighting, the next tip you need to know is about the background. This can be quite easy to manage when you are shooting in a studio where you can choose the plain background for the pictures. But what if you are outdoor or taking pictures in a party?

If that is the case, you will want to avoid too many things in the background. This is because too many things in the background will distract your viewers' attention. Even you have done a great job in capturing your subject's details, your viewers might not see it.

3. Communication

Now, communication is very important when you are developing your portrait photographer career. You want to know what your customers are looking for in their pictures and how you are going to take their portraits base on your professional photography knowledge. After all, photography is supposed to be a happy event. You don't want to spoil your customers' mood and you certainly don't want them to complaint about your service.

And even though you are not making money with portrait photography, communication is also very important when you are taking portraits as hobby. You want to let your subjects know how you are going to compose your shot and whether they are comfortable with your arrangement.

If your subject says her left side looks better in pictures you might want to take her suggestion and see how you work the portrait from there.

Since you have read the post, what are you waiting for? Let's go have some fun with portrait photography.

Happy taking pictures,

Michael Wong. :-)

Common Mistakes For Digital Photography Beginners

When you are starting new with digital photography, it is inevitable that you will make mistakes and I recommend that you give yourself chance to make mistakes. What do you have to lose? It is not that you have to spend money on film or anything like that, you can always delete the pictures that you feel is not up to your standard (you probably end up with slight increase of your electrical bills because of battery charges though).

And if you are serious with digital photography, let's take a look at the common mistakes that you see in digital photography beginners.

1. Too many distractions

I have to confess that I was a greedy person when I started with photography. I wanted to get everything into my pictures. I remember one of my pictures that I want to take the whole wall of graffiti with the subject in front of the wall but the picture was a total mess. There was no theme, no focus and everything seems to crying for your attention.

I was quite frustrated to how the picture turned out and I wondered how I can have everything while still have a good picture. It was not until my friend pointed out to me that it is common that we have to compromise with our pictures. We can't have them all. We have to give up some to have a good picture and that is when I started to give up on my dream. It was quite painful at that time. :-(

But after I stop being greedy, I found that taking pictures became easier. I hardly struggle to frame my picture and I no longer have to step a few feet back just to capture all the things and sometime sacrifice the details in my subjects.

With that being said, that leads us to the second tip.

2. Composition

After being in digital photography for some time, I realized that composition is very much important to your pictures. You simply can't take the camera and snap pictures as freely as you want. So, the next time you take your pictures, ask yourself,

"What do you want to show your viewers?"

When you understand that, you will know how to place and display your subjects so that they can stand out in the pictures. After all, photography is about showing the uniqueness of the subjects. :-)

3. Being too rigid

I believe you have been reading quite a lot when you started with digital photography. You are eager to improve on your photography skills and you follow exactly what you have read and the professional advice you have seen.

Now, these tips are great as guideline but they are not the law and you don't need to follow them to the dot. For all you need to know, digital photography is free to explore and you should improvise on what you have read. Who knows you might find something new and revolutionize the art.

So, a good picture doesn't means that the subject has to always be in the center. Shooting into the sun is not wrong when you want to capture the ray of light beaming on your subject and it can be fun to take a picture with your friend mouth full and eye wide open.

Ok. Ok. That might be too far away but the point is, you are not limited in a handful of ways to take picture with digital photography.

So, feel free to experiment with digital photography. :-)

Happy taking pictures,

Michael Wong. :-)

Be A Better Photographer

Have you ever be mesmerize by the surroundings and you start taking a lot pictures but when you got home and look at your pictures, you felt the pictures are boring and you can actually take better pictures?

If that is the case, you need to look at the pictures and see how you can edit the pictures so that they can look better. If there is too much distraction from the background, you can blur the background with the photo editing program. Since you are editing the pictures, why limit your option? After you have blurred the background, you can try to give a foggy feeling to the picture by slightly blurring the entire picture. Besides, the next time you take your pictures, remember to capture them in RAW format (you can only find this format in DSLR camera) so that you can edit them later.

Do you always take pictures with automatic mode? Do you want to save time so you take pictures with the automatic mode? However, when the camera takes pictures in automatic mode, the camera will adjust the setting to what it thinks is the best for the picture. You can actually take better pictures when you adjust the setting yourself. After all you are sharing your pictures with real people and who knows them better than you? Now, please don't misunderstand that I am saying the automatic mode is bad for your pictures. It is there to help save your time and work so that you can enjoy taking pictures.

And have you ever think about the exposure of your pictures? Sometimes, a simple adjustment of the exposure can make huge difference on your pictures. If the lighting is too bright, you need to lower it and vice versa.

And how can I ever forget about the angle when you are taking pictures. Instead of taking pictures while you are standing and putting your subjects in the middle of the frame, why don't you try to squat down and put your subjects at the side of the frame and leaving a huge space at the other side? You might felt odd to have that big empty space at the side but you probably will work out something when you take the pictures. Besides, you can always take vertical shot if you don't know what to do with the empty space.

So, you see, it is simple to be a better photographer. All you need is to change your perspective and something new will come up. :-)

Happy taking pictures,

Michael Wong. :-)

6 Beginner Photography Tips

If you just started with digital photography, the tips below can be useful to you.

1. Hold your wallet

I know how it feels when you see someone taking picture with DSLR camera. If you have heard the sound of the shutter of the DSLR camera, you probably will say to yourself that you also want the camera as birthday gift.

But before you rush into that, you might want to start your digital photography journey with a point and shoot camera. Besides, if you ask the experienced photographers, they will tell you that it is the photographer who takes great pictures. A high end DSLR camera is merely a plus point.

Who knows you might get bored with digital photography? Then your expensive digital camera might go wasted or listed in ebay.

2. Understand your camera

This might be the most important tip in this whole post.

I still remember how excited I was when I first got my camera and I am all pumped up to start taking picture. How hard can it be? You just lift the camera, look into the LCD screen and press the shutter button. And you will see a nice picture. But have you ever thought that your pictures can be better?

Let's take the white balance for example. Depends on your light source, it is possible that your picture will turn out slightly blue or red. And until you adjust your white balance, your pictures will feel different than other photographer.

So, when you got your camera, take a deep breath, relax and go through your manual and experience the camera settings.

3. Learn the basic

Since you are taking time to understand your digital camera, why don't you take the same time to learn the basic of digital photography as well?

If the manual doesn't provide you with the adequate information about digital photography, you can always look into the search engines for more. There are a lof of websites and blog that offer free digital photography tips.

So, make it a habit to read 2-3 articles or blog post about digital photography every alternate day and experiment what you learn with your camera. It can be very exciting when you see the pictures you took with what you have learn.

If you are worry about the cost, why should you? With digital photography, you are film free. You can simply delete the pictures that you don't like (although I will recommend you to keep those pictures for a while, you will know why by referring here).

And if you are learning from the internet, you just pay for the normal internet connection. If you are busy or the information seems overwhelming, you can always save the article in a folder and go back to it later.

4. Keep your camera

Have you ever wonder why you didn't have your camera with you during certain moment? It just makes you want to pound yourself for leaving the camera at home.

Great pictures often appear when you least expect it and I always see that during dinner with friends. You can't imagine how well the chefs set the plates nowadays, it is a waste if you like food and photography. Besides, if you visit the restaurant for the first time, you probably want to capture the ambience of the surrounding with your camera. It can be a great topic to share among friends too.

And to avoid missing all these precious moments, I now make sure that I at least carry my compact digital camera when I go out for dinner.

5. Tripod

You might be thinking, why you should get a tripod when your digital camera already comes with the anti-shake function. If you have compare pictures taken with and without a tripod (even with anti-shake function activated), you will see the reason why you need a tripod. The difference is even more significant when you are taking picture with low surrounding light where the shutter speed has to be delayed.

By mounting your camera on a tripod, it gives so much more stability to the camera and clearer pictures. Besides, tripods nowadays are affordable, light weight, portable and adjustable. If you are serious about digital photography, you should really consider getting the tripod.

6. Practice to improve

What more need to be said about this? If you want to have nice pictures; if you want to people to compliment about your pictures and if you want to come out triumphant in any digital photography competition, you have to practice to improve your digital photography skills.

Some of you might say that practicing is boring. I totally agree with you because I do felt that some time. I used to think how long I still need to become as good as the professional photographer. And to be frank with you, I have no idea.

Still, I know what I want with digital photography and I am going to work for it. I will continue to look for inspiration and improve my skills.

I hope you will do the same. :-)

Happy taking pictures,

Michael Wong. :-)

Keep Your Pictures First

If you were like me, you will delete the photo that doesn't look good immediately after you review it on the LCD screen. And I do it even more whenever I am low in storage memory (So, take my words. Please bring more memory cards or larger capacity storage card when you are out taking pictures. You never know what you will see). But seriously, you should keep the pictures and delete them after you see them on PC and you tried to revive them with software.

If you are wondering why you should do that, tell me, why do you want to get into photography? You want to keep the moment and capture the specific feeling. Now, you have to understand that a good picture doesn't necessary always need to be properly frame and have the best composition in the world. A distorted and picture that was taken by accident can still be a good picture. It just needs to give that feeling and tell the stories at that moment. Don't you agree?

What I am trying to say is that it can be difficult to determine whether you have taken a good picture when you are at that moment. You probably have set your mind to 'see' certain pictures to be accepted in your memory card. It is not until when you have transfer the pictures to your PC that you will notice a blurred foreground picture can be better than a properly compose picture.

Besides, you might miss some details when you are reviewing your pictures on the LCD screen especially when you are on a job that might need you to snap a lot of pictures. The rush in the job might cloud your judgement from creating something special.

So, if you extra storage in your memory card, try to keep the pictures you have taken. :-)

Happy taking pictures,

Michael Wong. :-)

Think First Before You Take The Pictures

What are you thinking when you are taking your pictures? If you are like me, I sometime didn't think much. I just want to keep the moment in pictures. And if you want to start getting good pictures, we should start thinking before we take pictures.

1. What's the message?

Before you snap the picture, you have to ask yourself,

"What is the real message I want to convey through my pictures?"

Different messages will require you to perform differently in terms of framing and composition. If you want to create a romantic feeling for the portrait, you probably have to create a silhouette of the couple during sunset or a black and white portrait of the couple holding hands together.

2. Proximity

How close are you to your subject? If you are too far from the subject, you will lose the details and you will take in too much distraction in your pictures. If you are too close to your subject, you might highlight the flaws in the subjects and some might misunderstand the theme in your pictures.

And if your subjects are uncomfortable with you getting too close, you can always zoom in to the subjects. However, I personally like to get close personally. I probably just want to bond with the subjects. I don't know how to explain this in words. It is a feeling that needs me to get close to the subjects.

3. Background

Now, when you are taking pictures, it is common that the background will draw your viewers' attention from the subjects. So, that is why you see sometime photographer purposely blur the background so that the subjects will stand out in the pictures.

And sometime you are force to take pictures even you know the background is distracting. Imagine you are taking a portrait at a hot tourist spot. It is difficult to get a clear picture with only your subjects when there are tourists all around the place. Since that is the case, you ought to blur the background to avoid the distraction.

4. Lighting

Have you ever thought of the lighting before you take your pictures? Your pictures will lose clarity when they are poorly lit. And when you are using artificial light (flash), is it too strong to your subjects?

And do you know that light coming from different direction can also affect your pictures? Try taking a picture of fruit bowl and you will know what I mean. So, the next time you take another picture, try to look for where is light coming from and you create a different feel in your pictures.

5. Habit

Now, as a photographer, I have developed a certain habit of mine when I take pictures. It was not until that when my brother asked me why most of my pictures are taken horizontally.

Do you have certain habits when you take pictures? If you do, that certainly limits the diversity in your pictures. So, if you have been fond to taking pictures horizontally, you probably want to start taking picture vertically. If you have been taking pictures vertically, you may want to look into taking pictures slantingly.

6. Angles

Talking about habits, many photographers also take the same when they pictures and I am one of them (I still do even I realize my problem). And you have to think about new angles the next time you try to take a picture. Before that, why don't you take a look at the pictures you have taken, are they taken from a similar angle? If they do, you might want to start lying down, crouching or simply hold your camera high above the subjects to take the pictures.

Although it might seems there are a lot of things you need to ask yourself before you start taking picture, it is alright that you can't remember them. It took me quite a while before I develop the habit (see, is habit again) and punch my thigh when I review the pictures. Just take more pictures and you will build that habit. :-)

Happy taking pictures,

Michael Wong. :-)

How To Take Nice Babies And Kids Portrait

Don't you agree that kids grow up so fast these days? It seems that it was just a few years ago when they are still small and sleep soundly in your arms. Don't you have the urge to freeze time and keep them as they are? Now, you and I both know that it is unlikely to happen and that is why we need digital photography to help us keep the memory when they are still nice and cute. :-)

One thing about babies and kids is they changes rapidly. They can be cute and cuddly now but when you got your camera and ready to shoot, they become sour face without any reason. That is why the first thing about taking nice babies and kids portrait, you have to always keep your camera ready. Once you miss your chance, you will have to wait for another time to get the picture and you probably have to wait for a long time.

When comes to taking babies and kids portrait, I personally like to use natural lighting instead of artificial lighting. I personally feel that they glow under sunlight. Besides that, some babies and kids cried when you pop flash at them. If you have experienced that before, you know how ugly the scenario can be especially when their parents showed you the why did you make my baby cry look.

By the way, some people do say that flash is not good for the babies and kids eyes because the sudden flash might damage their eyes. I am not sure how true that can be but it does make sense because their eyes sensory might not be fully developed. We probably have to becareful the next time we take babies and kids portrait.

And when you finally got the chance to take the picture, remember to zoom in close to capture their facial expression. Their smiling faces are the precious pictures which you will show your children when they grow up. Another tip for you to take a smiling picture of baby and kid is to have them sit on the mother lap. They somehow show their best smiling face when they are with the mother. I am sorry dad.

Since you are taking pictures of the babies and kids on the mother lap, why don't you take a picture of the mother with the child too? This can really highlight the maternal side of the mother and create a total different feel in the portrait.

Lastly, remember to add some accessories when you are taking the portraits. Professional photographers add hat, special costume and toys to bring out the cheerful and cute side of the babies and kids. Besides, babies and kids will have more fun during the photography session when they have something to play with.

Since you have read the tips, what are you still waiting for? Go have some fun with babies. :-)

Happy taking pictures,

Michael Wong. :-)

Starting Your Own Digital Photography Business

Unlike taking digital photography as a hobby, having passion and enthusiasm are not enough to build your digital photography business. Many people thought that they can turn their photography passion into money only to find that there are a lot of obstacles to clear in the business.

It is true that digital photography can be a fine work at home business. All you need is a PC and photo editing software. You can even start the business without a printer. You just send the edited pictures to the printing services and they will churn out the pictures for you. How about those customers who don't need printed pictures? You can just copied the pictures into DVD and collect your payment when you deliver the DVD.

So, you see, it is easy to make money with digital photography.

However, it is this ease in running the business that created a lot of competition. How can you stand out from the competitors besides slashing your price?

I expected that you already have proper photography skills when you are looking into starting your won digital photography business. So, I am not going to highlight the importance of having good photography skills before you start your business.

The first thing you need to have for your digital photography business is to have a plan. No business can survive if you don't have a plan. And looking at the fierce competition that is coming your way, it is only logical that you create a counter competition plan as well.

Now, you are dealing with people when you are in the digital photography business and when you are in people business, your level of service will determine the money you can earn with digital photography. Many people fail their business not because they didn't product good pictures. They fail because they provide bad service.

Many photographers promised to deliver the pictures but to fail to do so and your customers might forgive you for once. But if you fail to deliver the pictures by the next due date, your customers will be frustrated and start throwing words at you. Now, you might have a lot of works and delayed your delivery but your customers don't care about that. They will only think that you give them bad service and they might spread the words to not to book you for a job.

After that, you will need to market your business. There are a lot of affordable and effective marketing strategies you can find online. For starter, you can start advertising your service in the social networking websites. You can either buy ad space in the social networking site and announce your service in your status.

You can also take part in local photography competition (if your area has such event) to build your reputation. Of course you aim to win when you join the competition but so what if you didn't win? The most important thing is that you can see how other photographers produce their work and what the weaknesses in your pictures are. When you have rectified the problems in your pictures and build your reputation, your customers will start to look for your service.

Lastly, a digital photography business is like any business. You will have stress, budget problem, put in effort and sacrifice time to build your business. If you are unwilling to do necessary sacrifice, you probably have to think about entering the business.

Happy taking pictures,

Michael Wong. :-)