With spring on the horizon in some parts of the world, you may be thinking about photographing some beautiful wildflowers soon. So, here are tips to get you started:
Using a tripod will help you get sharper photos by ensuring your camera doesn’t move. But, the tripod helps in another way too: it forces you to be more careful about your composition.
Butterflies are pretty sensitive little creatures. Get too close, and they’ll fly away in a hurry. And, even when you do get close, they’re constantly moving from flower to flower, gathering their most precious prize: sweet nectar. All this makes it difficult to photograph butterflies, but here are 8 tips for dealing with some of these problems:
Butterflies move quickly from flower to flower, so you won’t have time to lock in your tripod. But, you can still use it for some stability by keeping the head loose (so you can quickly move the camera).
Since no single pose is perfect for every model, professional or otherwise, each person before your lens should be looked at individually to decide what to highlight and what to hide. That said, there are basic positions and compositional rules that are extremely helpful to have in mind when going into a photo shoot.
When it comes to photographing a “real” person (rather than a professional model) for an environmental portrait, you may want to capture an element that highlights that person’s uniqueness—even if it isn’t necessarily the most flattering part of that person. A famous photograph of Jimmy Durante, for instance, exaggerates his large nose. Artists who draw caricatures take advantage of these elements. Alfred Hitchcock had a distinctive body type best portrayed in profile. Jay Leno’s and Kirk Douglas’ chins also come to mind. Think about the desired end result—what you want to get across—and it will help you decide on the most appropriate pose for your subject.