I am working on improving my portrait photography skills and Miss Isabelle graciously agreed to model for me this past Tuesday morning.(See? It's not another shameless Gramma Cupcake bragging post, it's about improving your portrait photography skills!)
Anyway.
Each time I practice, I learn a bit more of what I am doing wrong and it is exciting to see ways of improving my skills with this. Even though she was getting over her first cold, sweet Miss Isabelle was such a good sport all the same. And, hopefully she will be back over for another session in just a week or two when she is fully over her cold so I can work on this photography thing some more.
I am by no stretch of the imagination a pro at this, just somebody's Gramma, trying to get better with my picture taking skills, but here are a few tips that I have learned from trial and error so far...(learn from my mistakes here, people.)Take the tips for what they are.
*For outdoor shots, don't photograph directly in the sun. It's just too bright. Glaring. Make sure you, with your camera, and your model are in the shade, at least for the most part. (See the grass in the picture above? Some sun, some shade? You want the subject of the picture in the shade fully, or there are too many visual distractions in the picture..just my opinion here.)
*Close ups are nice, but the photo doesn't have to be a close up to start with. Cropping it in after wards works really great, and you may end up with two shots from the same photo that you like both ways, like here:
*Be organized and prepared when photographing babies and little children...(actually, I guess it's good to be organized when photographing anyone.) The time frame is kind of short, since they aren't always thrilled to keep posing and being repositioned for you for hours on end. Check out the area in which you'll be taking the pictures. Look through the camera viewfinder at the area before the subject arrives to get the are a set up if you're doing this shoot outdoors, as I was. Then you see if it's too sunny, or has too much going on in the background.
*Have fun! Just take the shots you can, and then gather up your model (and her mama!) and go out to lunch. It worked for me!
