Pregnancy & Birth Announcement Blog

So in part 1 we learned that knowing how to use our camera is vital to taking good pictures.  Even if your camera is a basic digital camera with a minimum of 3 megapixels, we learned that it can take great pictures.  Now that you have your camera and know how to use it we need to discus how to take a good snapshot.

Don’t be conservative with the memory card or film.  Particularly with kids, you never know when a good shot is going to reveal itself.  I like to take shots in a series or burst.  I don’t like using the burst setting but prefer to snapshots in a rythm.  So take as many as you can and sort out what you don’t like later (another reason to go get a good digital if you haven’t already!). 

Many of the best pictures I see don’t have the item of focus in the center of the shot.   Don’t be afraid to move the child away from the center if it catches some background that will enhance the shot.  Perhaps you are at a pond and your 2 year old is feeding the ducks.  Centering your child will shrink the shot and will leave 1/3 of the picture empty.  Frame all of the detail as it would be natural. 

When it comes to framing a common mistake is to fill the entire frame with your child.  This in of itself is not a bad thing if you get the picture just right.  Where you might have wished to have taken a wider shot is when you go to use the picture in, lets say, a birth announcement.  You may have taken a “landscape” (wider than taller perspective) picture but the birth announcement you purchased needs a “portrait” (taller than wider perspective) picture.  If you didn’t leave enough room around your child in the picture (your baby fills up the entire picture) it will be impossible to properly adjust the picture to fit.  You will end up settling for using a different picture.  Not what you wanted and perhaps not as good a quality picutre.  Even for the best photographers, not every picture is perfect so when you have one you want to be able to use it.  What you probably don’t understand is that a 4 megapixel digital camera has the ability to blow up a standard picture to incredibly large sizes and keep the quality! A 5 megapixel camera can pull larger sizes than a 4 and so on.  A 6 megapixel picture can be blown up to billboard sizes and keep 300 DPI (minimum print resolution… technical mumbo jumbo).  So if we crop the picture and lose some of the edges, we can still blow up the main portion of the picture a keep the quality.  This also gives us the ability to reshape the and change the perspective.  So don’t always zoom in all the way!  Give yourself some room.

 Focus is pretty simple.  Usually, auto focus on most cameras will do fine.  Sometimes you may need to use the manual focus if the object you want focused is not in the center of the shot.  Many cameras have a manual focus option.  check your settings on your camera to determine how to focus on out of center objects.  You will want to know this before you try to get that great shot.

I like it when pictures don’t looked posed and you are catching a natural reaction or emotion.  Looking at a camera will usually not result in a natural shot but rather a posed one.  Unless you are directing the person to the camera without having them realize you are taking a picture.  I tend to find that taking pictures of the kids doing their thing without disturbing them results in some great pictures.  They will often look at the camera to say something to me and I can get that great shot straight on because they are not thinking of a picture and therefore not posing.

Lighting is perhaps the most critical element in getting great natural color without some digital color correction.  All non-natural light (unless you have professional photograph equipment) will result in higher levels of yellow in your pictures.  Most cameras have adjustements for this.  Play with them.  Take a picture of a colorful book or something that you can compare each setting under different lighting conditions.  See what you get.  This will give you a better chance of getting the color just right.  Usually your camera will have a “white balance” setting.  Find it, use it. 

Sun is an enemy.  Most pictures do not come out great when there is a treamendous amount of sunlight.  There are many shadow issues and the refective property of skin and other items tend to cause for a washing out appearance of the picture.  Overcast days are great for shooting people and objects.  You will get great natural color without any playing with settings outside on overcast days.

You now have many of the tools you need to take great pictures.  In part 3 we will chat about some specific details that will help create great pictures and lasting memories.  Start practicing and check back in a few days for the conclusion of this series.

We get more requests for information about how to take great pictures of newborn babies than all other topics combined.   We will try our best to cover this vast topic as it regards to newborn baby pictures for birth announcements. 

 First, you have to know your equipment.  What are you using for a camera?  Are you using a digital or film camera.  If it is digital what megapixel is the camera?  If it is a film camera, do you really know how to use it?  My guess is, if you are using an actual 35mm you know what you are doing.  If you don’t know how to use a 35mm camera or you have an old automatic I strongly recommend you start with a new camera.  The newest cameras are all 5 megapixel and above and will create pictures with a high enough resolution for just about any project.  We will talk more about “resolution” later and what that means exactly.  Best Buy has 5 mexapixel cameras starting at under $100 dollars.  Even the most basic digital is going to allow you to create better pictures in the long run. 

Ok… so you have a camera but other than the button that takes the picture, do you know how to use it?  Does it have a white balance feature, can you adjust the aperture, zoom, and shutter speed?  Is there a auto focus and manual focus?  Is the zoom optical or digital or both?  If you are confused and couldn’t answer these questions…  go find your manual and read it.  You are going to be shocked at what you learn about that great Christmas present.

Stop reading… I said go find your manual and read it… Really!

Ok… so you read your manual and you know how to what kind of camera you have, how to use it and what all those little buttons and menus do.  This is the first step to great pictures…  Just like any artist or craftsman, you have to know your tools.  Luckily, the average digital camera today on the normal “snapshot” setting will take great pictures.  I would recommend keeping the megapixel level at 4 or above but 3 megapixels will do for birth announcements although it will restrict your ability to blow up pictures.  If you have a 2 megapixel camera or lower… upgrade if you can…

 Let me say, that it is not important to have a super expensive camera with lots of functions.  Especially if you don’t know how to use them anyway.  Like I said earlier, a modestly priced digital camera will do fine…

Now you are ready to take some pictures.  In part 2 we will discuss how to frame the picture, angles, light and its effects, portrait or landscape, focus, and some other tidbits on taking great pictures.