photography tutorial: (how to light up your life)...

You probably know by this by now:  I'm a very visual person.

Hence, this blog is highly picture oriented.  Sure, I still like to rant, rave and ramble on about things here.. but if a 'picture is worth a thousand words' it saves me all the hot air.

I've had a number of you sweethearts say I take beautiful pictures, and I thank you for that.

Today, I thought I'd show you a simple trick I often incorporate in my picture taking: 

How to flood sunshine into your shots 

 Here's my two digital cameras I get to play with. 

The Kodak EasyShare Z612 has been my main camera for years.

The Canon PowerShot SX20 IS is a new wonder I've been experimenting with (thanks to my sweet sis for scoring it for me!!).

I always assumed people just knew how to do this trick, but upon being asked recently how I achieved that 'bright, white, glow look' in my shots.. I thought maybe others would appreciate the tutorial too.

Note: this is for digital cameras.

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So, first you need a sunlit background (whether indoors or out).

IF you focus your camera directly on your subject, your camera will try to compensate for all the light behind... and cause your subject matter to be quite dark (seen on left).

Tip: swing your camera to the darker object first, and focus (usually means push your shutter button half-way) keep it locked there with a steady finger.. and swing back to the full frame - you'll see that your subject is now illuminated in bright white light (seen on right)! 

 

Tinderpuff wanted in on the action here too (as usual).

Again, if we directly focus and snap the shot... it turns out like the first picture.

In the middle shot I'm showing you how I swing my camera down to a darker area (the shadowed wall area)... LOCK the focus there and then swing back up to snap the picture of Tinderpuff with the illuminated effect.

Hope that helps any/all of you who are interested!

Now, go shoot things,

Snap-happy,

Mel ;o)