If you’re like me, this is the time of year when the photo cards begin to arrive. They are usually pictures of friends and family more often than not taken in their homes with the kids sitting on the fireplace mantel or in front of the tree. Sometimes the images are so dark you can barely make out what the kids look like. Other times they are so washed out that all you see are the kids red eyes popping off the page. What I hope to share here is a simple way to improve your holiday pictures with nothing more than your digital camera some scotch tape and paper.
For these images, I borrowed my daughters Canon digital camera. I placed two Christmas decorations in front of our mantel and took a quick shot with the on-camera flash.
As you can see here the result is pretty much what the camera captured, a fairly flat, wide angle image with harsh shadows. For most people this is acceptable but if you want to improve your pictures there’s a simple solution.
Tape a small piece of white paper over your flash, as shown here.
Let is bubble out away from the flash. What this will do is soften the light so your shadows won’t be as harsh. The other thing it does is cuts back on the amount of light reaching your subject so you will need to move closer to them.
This brings me to my second tip, framing your subject. First thing, move your subject away from the background, get them out of that fireplace! Second, zoom you lens to make your subjects larger in your frame and lastly, take more than one picture.
Here is the finished image. I pulled the objects away from the fireplace and placed them in the middle of the room., by moving my camera in closer so my diffused flash wouldn't have to work as hard I made my objects the focal point of my image.
If you have any questions or would like to see more of my work please visit my site.
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