Speaking of Taking Photos...

¡Hay Que Calor!

I far from know what I’m doing with a camera, but I do have a good time taking photos with one. Here are two things that I’ve learnt this year that have helped my photos that everyone else on Earth probably already knew.

“The Focus Thing”
When you take a shot, focus on what/who you want in focus first, then frame it how you want, then shoot it. It seems really obvious when you say it out loud, but I never thought of doing it until I saw one of the guys I went to Mt Roraima in Venezuela with do it. It’s amazing how many photos I’ve seen, and taken, where the background is in focus but the person in the foreground isn’t or they’re not as sharp as they could be.

“The Flash Is Your Friend”
Excessive use of capital letters aside, this is something that occurred to me on the latest trip to Las Cataratas de Iguazu. I just happened to be taking heaps of photos of Aura in front of the falls in a whole lot of sunlight and couldn’t get her as bright as I wanted.

I‘m sure there’s some fancy technical term about white balance or exposure do-hickies or something, but basically I’ve found people appear dark when you take photos of them with a bright background. To fix that, take the photo with the flash to illuminate the foreground as well as having a bright background. You also get a sharper foreground which is an added plus.

In some of the photos from Iguazu, the whites are a bit too strong, so I think I need to play with the flash settings but I can live with them for now.

This photo of Aura at the falls in one I like in particular, the towel is too white, but she's nice and sharp and well lit despite a 1PM sun. Framing could have been better though, I think it's in a little too close.

That’s all I’ve got for now. If you know some other obvious things that I’ve been too slow to figure out please let me know.