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Help for a beginner to take official photos!
In two weeks time I am to take the official photographs at my schools ‘winter ball’ , These photos are going to be up for sale and on the school tv’s! So I really want to take the best quality photos that I can! The pictures are primarily group photos in a well-lit area. I have a Sony alpha390 14.2 Megapixels camera with a DT18-55mm lens! Please help! My main problem is I don’t exactly understand what setting to use, will it work best with portrait or auto or? And is a tripod recommended if I can get my hands on one?
Tags: AUTO, beginner, Camera, event, flash, group, portrait, sony
One Answer to “Help for a beginner to take official photos!”
0
It’s a common question and usually the first to indicate someone might not be quite ready for this kind of thing. I hope it goes well for you but I would get some friends together and practice first. Settings change per second, auto is worst case scenario. If you have to use an auto mode at least use program mode and control iso and exposure compensation.
If you do have low light (what if it rains and you have to shoot indoors) you are going to struggle without knowledge of flash and auto settings don’t really cut it in these conditions. A fast lens may not help much for big groups also, as a low f number will result in a shallow depth of field.
As a rule of thumb, if shooting in bad light with pop up flash.
set camera into full manual, use a shutter speed of 30th-60th of a second to let in the ambient light, use the flash compensation to lighten or darken the people, change the shutter speed to change the ambient light, you may find a tripod useful as this is a slow shutter speed. Always keep you iso as low as possible to keep quality high.
move people as far as possible from a backround and zoom in. this stops ugly flash shadow behind them and makes them stand out. The backround will also blur a little even if you’re lens is slow, but this in turn will give you a slower shutter speed if you have a kit lens.
For a large group portrait.
Buy a reflector, (really cheap on amazon) stand people with the sun behind them and try and get someone to use the reflector as fill light, flash will also work but prefer natural light if possible.
I would use aperture priority, maybe F5.6-f8 depending on how big you need the dept of field (as otherwise people in a back row could be out of focus for instance)
Finally the biggest challenge and something that any newbie to photography will forget about, is that it’s dealing with the people that is the hardest part.
Make sure you count in a photo to be taken, or give a signal. Communcate constantly, take a few shots of each group to cover blinking. Cheesey forgettable jokes are great for a subtle smile.
All these best and good luck.
Paul
http://www.fluidr.com/photos/luddite1979
http://www.500pc.com/paulscottthomasphotography
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