As I type this, I am sitting at my car dealership waiting while some preventive maintenance is taking place on one of my cars. And an ex student just said hello, and told me he was going to take some pictures over Christmas. Good!
Picture, no doubt, like this one I took of a friend the other day:
And it occurs to me that he and I are not the only ones doing some photography. Hence, a few tips for you for the parties of the next few days.
- Make sure your camera and flash batteries are fully charged.
- Ensure you have a formatted memory card in the camera.
- For “party shots”, you may want a lens in the, roughly, 35mm focal length range, or 24mm on a crop camera.
- Put the flash on the camera and aim it upward behind you, if you can find a white or white-ish wall or ceiling.
- Use the “Willems 400-40-4 rule” as your starting point setting. That gives you a warmer, slightly dark background, as in the photo above. Adjust as needed.
- If your flash part of your photo is blown out and harsh, use “Flash Exposure Compensation” to decrease the flash power. Or inscrease it if it is dark (you may also need to increase your camera’s ISO).
Do these simple things and you will get good pictures, better than ever. And I am telling you this now so you have two days to practice. Enjoy!!