Wedding Photography Tips for Beginners – How to Compose Your Photos, Part 3 of 4

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Photography

I have written a series of four articles to help you with your composition in wedding photography. In the first two articles I talked about horizontal and vertical composition, as well as a technique of composition based on the rule of two thirds. In this article I am going to introduce another simplified technique of composition also based on the rule of two thirds.

In this technique you must divide your frame in thirds (either horizontal or vertical) and fill two thirds with one element of interest, and the remaining third with another element of interest. Lets again imagine our original example of a landscape with a lake and a mountain. We can compose the mountain to fill two thirds, and the lake the remaining third, or vice versa. As you can see, whichever element fills the two thirds of the frame will be the dominant element of the photo. The photo may either be a big majestic mountain with a quaint lake below, or a beautiful mountain lake with a distant mountain peak. Add the wedding couple, and we can imagine a photo where they occupy two thirds with a distant peak in the background, or a photo with the peak taking up two thirds, and the wedding couple in the last third below. As you can see, the wedding couple may be part of the lake element, i.e., two-thirds mountain element, one-third lake and couple element.

These two techniques illustrate the most important concept at work here in composition: there may be many elements of interest, but one of them is dominant. This is vital for your photo to have balance. You should not have two elements of interest competing to be the main subject. It is either the mountain, or the couple. The photo should not be composed so that one half is the couple, and one half the mountain.

This is at work in all the techniques. In a close-cropped portrait, it is obvious the couple is the dominant element; the background is pleasing but not distracting nor vying for attention. With the first version of the rule of thirds, if the couple is on one of the intersection points, it is obvious that they are not the main element. The landscape is the main element in this technique; the wedding couple is just a compliment.

I hope this technique helps you with your wedding photography composition. In the next and last article of the series I will continue talking about the idea of balance in composition, as well as introduce two devices to improve your wedding photography.

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Family Photography Tips!

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Photography

This is a modern world, and we are modern…families! No matter who the members of your family are, chances are you love capturing their smiles, laughs and happy times with our age’s newest and latest technology. Cameras and photography have come a long way since they were first invented, so don’t feel bad if you’re not quite caught up with all the techniques out there. While the “traditional” family portrait may cut it sometimes, we think your gorgeous family needs some modern shots to preserve precious moments. If you’ve been looking for fast, easy and fun techniques to help you catch all of your modern family’s great memories, we’ve got a treat for you today!

Sarah Sloboda is a lifestyle photographer from New York City who is committed to inspiring people by showing them how beautiful their lives really look-with great-looking photos! Award-winning, trained in filmmaking and documentary-style photography and with a passion that’s clearly evident, Sarah doesn’t keep all her talent to herself; in fact, she shares photography tips online to help families take the most beautiful photos of their own members on her crazy-useful blog the University of

We’ve gathered our top four favorite family photography tips:

-Don’t be shy
Sarah suggests getting down low to your baby and kids’ level by getting right down on the ground with them to capture their great smiles and expressive faces. Also get in as close as your camera will allow: you’ll capture all those precious emotions better.

-Act normal
Don’t resort to funny faces or waving stuffed animals to get your kids to “perform” on camera. Just take photos as usual and let them eventually grow used to having a camera around. You might not always get a smile, but you will always get genuine reactions from your kids!

-Find a rhythm
Sarah’s brilliant idea of putting on some music for your kids for a casual photo shoot in your home is right on target, and she suggests bringing out costumes and just letting your kids having fun dancing and moving.

-Turn off the flash
Our personal favorite tip of Sarah’s (and one we can’t underscore enough) is to turn off the flash!

You’ll see the photograph in natural light and get to experiment with the composition, producing beautiful, natural and flash-free photos!

What are your favorite tips when photographing your family? What’s the best photo you’ve ever taken of a loved one, and the story behind it? Share with us your own great family photography ideas!

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Night Photography Tips

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Photography

Photos taken at night can produce absolutely spectacular results. In fact many cities, hotels, and residences present their best views of all after dark. Night Photography can prove to be challenging, but by learning a couple of tricks you can get some great looking images.

There are two very important factors behind successful night photography. First make sure enough light gets into the camera for a decent looking exposure and the second ensure your camera is steady to avoid any shake. There are also other tools you can use which we will go over.

A tripod is essential. It will give you the greatest flexibility to get the angles you need while keeping your camera steady for those long exposures. There is no way you can hold your camera and not shake it. This trick is simple and straightforward, set your camera on a tripod and start shooting.

The other part of the equation is the one that is more difficult and it involves trial and error and the wanting to learn as you go. You will have to rely on a longer exposure time that can go from half a second to 30 seconds, and controlling the aperture to avoid overexposure. Aperture and shutter speed will have to go hand in hand and some experimenting before you arrive to your desire results.

There is no exact science and settings for night photography. Just keep in mind that you have to balance your aperture and your shutter speed. You will need a long shutter speed, but the aperture that you choose will provide the depth of field. As a standard you can use a shutter speed of 5 to 15 seconds with a very narrow aperture, which will create crisp images with a huge depth of field and all in focus. If you prefer less depth of field then widen the aperture.

Other tools available for night photography include: wide-angle lenses, a lens hood, a flashlight and a shutter release cable.

Wide-angles lenses work great in night photography leave this tool to your imagination and creativity. A lens hood will minimize lens flares from light entering at angles that are outside of your frame. A flashlight either for tricks, lighten up spaces that might be too dark or simply for getting things out of your bag. A shutter release cable will help you even more preventing and movement in the camera, if you do not have one then use your camera timer.

Rules of composition apply exactly the same during the day or at night, just use your imagination, capture unique angles and break the rules. Remember: ‘The best night photography is created by experimenting’. When you figure out the best scenes, the best exposure settings and that you have to keep your camera steady then you will create amazing night images.

Go capture that magical image!!

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Useful Wedding Photography Tips!

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Photography

A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united forever and promise to stay faithful and loving no matter what. Wedding should have lots of memories and these memories are in the form of photographs. Wedding photographers make each moment lovely and amazing.

There are some useful wedding photography tricks that every photographer should use. Here are some of those:
Preparation: preparation is an important thing. It is as important as taking photographs. One should be well prepared with batteries and everything that can be needed in photography.
List: Always create a short list consisting of what you need to use and what all has to be done. Creating a list is always good. It helps you overcome minor things.
Analyze the location: It is always good to analyze the location where the wedding has to take place. You should decide the angle and the location to click the wedding photographs from.
Wedding day: Keep yourself fresh and hydrated. Photographs are a must in weddings and you need to click the perfect ones.
Chat with the couple: When you interact with the couple you get to know them and what kind of photographs are they expecting form you. Ask the couple about who all have to be clicked and tell them what your strong and weak points are. This will definitely help in providing the best photographs ever.
Different stages in a wedding: As a wedding photographer one should click photographs at different stages. For example click photographs when the bride is getting ready, click one when the bridesmaids are ready. Such kind of photography always wins the part.
Light: When taking photographs take care of the lights. Choose wisely the position of the camera so that the lights are good in the photographs.
Switch off the voice: When you clicking photograph take care not to disturb people. Switch the click or flash sound off so that people are not bothered with the sound of the photograph being clicked.
Shoot the small details: take care of the small details while clicking photographs. Smaller details are always liked by the people.
Be bold: Be bold and do not feel back when clicking photographs for wedding. Be bold in taking shots and make it a memorable moment for the bride and groom.

If a photographer takes care of all these, he definitely will be among the most sought after photographers in the world. If one needs to find a good photographer in London try searching online and read testimonials of different photographers. London wedding photographers are usually blessed with all qualities and provide great wedding photographs.

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