Baby Photography Tips for Beginners

It's such an exciting time getting ready to photograph your newborn so with some good baby photography tips you can get some great shots. Firstly create a list of shots you want to take before you reach for your camera. When taking photos of your newborn your a very limited to time as there are many confounding variables that come into play. Be sure to get a good grip of your safe shots first and once you are confident with theses, start greeting creative with new angles and ideas.

The best lens to use for this kind of photograph would be a fast 50/85mm prime lens. shooting at wide apertures and F-stop numbers between 5.6 and 4 will allow you to work in darker environments and capture the focal point on your subject with a blurred backdrop to remove distractions.

When taking the photographs set your camera to Aperture priority and opt for the wide f4 - f5.6 F-stop. Focus on your newborns face and allow a bit of the backdrop in the frame. Interesting or colorful backdrops are really good to use in these situations as they make the scene and image more dramatic. Another perspective you could consider would be to aim your focal point at your child's feet throwing the rest of his or her frame into a creative blur, best position for this is to stand at the end of your child, in a fairly low position.

Attaching a zoom to your camera to vary the composition of your shots is a great idea to consider. You can get really cute pictures of feet, hands, ears, and nose. Try to span the image out wide to reveal the entire length of your child's body.

When taking any kind of portraiture photography you need to consider an even light distribution. Don't ever consider using your flash, it disrupts the calm atmosphere your creating, and it will rob your image of tone and texture. Position your child, cot or basket, in a room with big windows and white walls, or near a window using a white sheet or curtain to diffuse if it is a very bright, sunny day out.

make sure there are not distracting items like bottles, nappies, toys in the foreground or background of your shot. Incorporate soft blankets for interesting colors, tones, and textures. Consider using props for size emphasis, and objects to keep to a theme. Make sure though not to have too much clutter in your shot. Keeping it simple is the key.

Consider shooting in black and white or editing to black and white for some of your shots. Black and white imagery always carries our more emotion than colorful shots. When editing your shots play around with the curves, or presets in the software you are using to control your contrast and brightness of your shadows, mid tones and highlights.

As your newborn grows up at such a dramatic speed, it is a good idea to shoot at a well thought out periodical interval to chart the change and growth of your child. A collection of these images can printed in a photo book and make for a great gift or a great visual memory of your child.

It is always a good thing to try an emphasis the petite proportions of your newborn. This is best done with the parent. Babies hand on mums and dads hand, or your child's feet in between the fathers.

To get the best images of your newborn, make sure you take the photographs after a good feed and a quick nap when your child is waking.

Melbourne Baby Photographer, Ellie Williams, is an award winning fine art photographer, specializing in newborn, baby, children and family portraits and is based in Inner Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

http://www.melbournebabyphotographer.com.au/

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Better Cameras For Beginners - Budget Is An Issue

Photography is becoming more popular every day. The simplicity of the modern camera and the technology improvement over the last few years has raised the bar for beginning photographers. So many are excited over the newest models, that they are putting aside their point and shoot cameras in favor of more advanced models. Still, rather than investing thousands of dollars, many would rather purchase a cheap digital SLR camera. In fact, sales of cheap DSLR cameras have skyrocketed over the past couple of years. There are actually several reasons for being able to spend less and get much more value for your buck.

One of the reasons the new photographer can spend less is simply because the advancement in technology has raised the quality of the less expensive models. To illustrate, just take a look at three models produced by the Canon Corp. The rebel T3 I, 60 D, and 7D vary in price by a total of about $1000, yet they all have the same image sensor. This means that the quality of the pictures taken will be pretty much identical, depending on the skill of the photographer. Of course, there are other things that make a difference in the costs of the cameras, but these days, less money is getting much better quality.

Another reason beginners are opting for cameras at the lower end of the professional spectrum is the quality of video that less expensive cameras are producing. More and more people are using, not video cameras, but they're still camera for recording video simply because the quality is excellent. HD video at 1080p and 30 frames per second is becoming standard even at the beginners level. If you were to read the reviews at the online stores, you would see that this video capability is one of the top reasons for buying certain models.

Another compelling reason for buying a better camera than a point-and-shoot model is that the learning curve is not what it used to be. One of the reasons for this is that the settings are much more user-friendly, including the fact that some models have a feature guide on the rear LCD panel that explains exactly what each setting will accomplish when selected. Most models also feature a "quick set" button for the obvious reason of finding the most popular and widely used camera settings.

While the new settings of most inexpensive cameras are fairly user-friendly, a new owner can still use the auto setting to take excellent photos. Again, camera technology has advanced to the point that newer models usually get the settings for light and color just about perfect every time. The cameras are getting so good at this that they have the mode setting called "intelligent auto", and when set on this they are indeed intelligent.

Finally, these new cameras are simply better than point-and-shoot cameras when it comes to performance. This may seem obvious, but it needs to be pointed out. One of the things that most point-and-shoot camera owners experience is something called shutter lag. This is the time between when the user presses the shutter button to record the picture and when the picture is actually taken by the camera. It is also very apparent when using the camera's flash. When using a higher grade camera, even if it is achieved digital SLR, shutter lag is practically nonexistent, even when taking flash pictures.

There are many reasons for buying a new camera, but over the last few years, improved technology and lower prices have catapulted many amateur photographers into the ranks of digital SLR owners.

Wayne Rasku is an owner of a cheap digital SLR camera. The features and settings of thhis camera are on par with many of the more expensive cameras on the market. Discover the benefits of moving up from a point-and-shoot model at http://digital-photographic-resources.com/.

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