How to take a good photo of yourself. How to take beautiful photos on your phone. How to take photographs at night and in the evening

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The video, where American photographer Lornez Holder demonstrates 7 amazing tricks that can be done with a smartphone camera, was watched by about 500 thousand people in a day. The iPhone 5S that the photographer used turned out to be capable of macro photography and underwater photography. Babr has made a convenient storyboard for you with brief instructions for every trick

1. Use panorama mode to “multiply” one person in the frame

Turn on the mode panoramic photography, and then, slowly, start it. In this case, the subject should move quickly around you against the movement of the camera, entering the frame several times. If done correctly, you get an interesting “clone” effect.

2. Panoramic mode from a moving car will also allow you to create unusual photos

For your safety, do not attempt this while driving. It is better to entrust the shooting to a passenger.

3. Binoculars are great for getting closer to your subject.

By placing regular binoculars next to the smartphone camera lens, you can get multiple magnification - zoom.

4. With a drop of water, you can turn your smartphone camera into a macro lens

Organizing macro photography is a little more difficult. To do this, you need to carefully apply a drop of water to the camera lens. This way you can photograph insects.

5. A car sunshade will serve as an excellent reflector.

Another fun experiment is with reflective curtains for cars, which add depth and interesting shadows to photos.

Without reflector with reflector

6. You can easily make a mini selfie tripod out of a piece of cardboard.

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All efforts to create a website or online store are worthless if you do not pay enough attention to the main thing - photographs. Perhaps there is no need to explain that pictures not only make the page attractive, but also make the visitor stay on your site for a long time. In addition, photos are easy to share on social networks, which greatly expands marketing opportunities.

To take great photos, you need very little: good photographer with professional equipment, a studio (not necessarily a large one) and, preferably, an art manager who will figure out how to photograph your products beautifully and originally. There is only one catch - at the stage of launching your project, you are unlikely to have a budget that can safely cover the costs of such photography.

You will definitely do this when your business starts generating income, but in the meantime you can take some very good shots at home. It is only important to know a few basic conditions for conducting proper subject photography for a website, and we will talk about them in our article.

Lighting

If a photo is taken in poor lighting, no amount of processing will correct this situation: the pictures will be unclear, and color rendition will suffer. In the absence of spotlights and reflectors, it is necessary to look for light sources available at home. The best option is natural light from the window.

Avoid direct sun rays, they will give extra glare and harsh shadows. It is best to take pictures on a bright but cloudy day. By the way, photographs taken in such soft light are visually perceived better.

If you don’t have a window suitable for shooting, or if you want to shoot outside of daytime, you can make a softbox with your own hands - an attachment for a direct light source, which allows you to make the lighting soft and diffused. This is not so difficult, but it will still require skill, time and small financial investments.

Look at the photo of wooden butterflies from the twinsbowties.ru store. With some effort, you can take photos like these at home.

Style

First of all, a cool blog or online store is distinguished by a single style that is consistent for all pictures. Don't experiment wildly with filters or shooting angles for every new photo. This does not mean that in absolutely all photos the product should be positioned only in a certain way and in no other way.

Look at the photo from the store afourcustom.ru. It seems that they are all different, but they have general features, inherent in the photographs of this store only.

Another type of photographs that is attractive to buyers are pictures in which you can estimate the size of the item being offered, for example, as in the kokosina.com store.

If we talk about the variety of shooting angles for a blog or website, then everything is simpler - the visitor is simply interested in looking at things from all sides. And he will probably stay longer on your page, leafing through the pictures.

Why not have a photo shoot at home instead of going to a studio? You will have the opportunity to personalize the shooting individual characteristics and save a lot of money. With a camera, a window, and a few assistants nearby, anyone can create a series of professional-looking photographs right in the comfort of their own home.

Steps

Part 1

Preparation

Choose a location for your "studio". Find a white wall, preferably in a room that receives plenty of daylight. If you don't have a white wall in your home or it's obscured by any images, hang a white sheet from the ceiling and tape it along the floor. This way you will create a semblance of a studio background for a photo shoot.

Open the curtains and let the sunlight fill the room. Lighting is the most important element when conducting a quality photo shoot, and natural light allows you to get the best results.

• Plan to start shooting at a time when there is plenty of sunlight coming through the windows. This way you don't have to rush to take pictures.
• If your room receives bright sunlight, diffuse it with a sheer white curtain or thin white sheet to create a softening effect and avoid harsh shadows.
• Even on cloudy days, the sun can provide enough light for your photo shoot.

1. Find lamps with “deaf” shades. Table lamps, for example, often have shades like this, closed on one side, so you can focus their light to a specific location.

   • You may also consider purchasing studio lighting fixtures that are used by artists and photographers for this specific purpose. Among them are inexpensive ones that can be found in lighting stores or photo stores. If you are going to do more than one home photo shoot, this will be profitable investment money.

2. Create a professional atmosphere. Use lighting to fill the room with soft light, without the presence of shadows.

   • One light should be directed toward the ceiling, creating a soft glow over the white paint. This light should softly illuminate the subject from above.
   • Use another lamp to “fill” the space with light; Place it at the back of the room, far enough away from the subject that it won't create a shadow.
   • Both of these types of lighting can be used in combination with diffused natural light. Different light sources will help create the optimal environment for a professional photo shoot.
   • Do not use lighting coming from above, from the ceiling, otherwise sharp shadows cast by the object cannot be avoided.
   • You can use an umbrella, piece of cloth, or other material to diffuse or filter the light.

3. Prepare the necessary props. Perhaps a simple wooden stool will suffice for your model to pose for, or perhaps you've decided to do a photo shoot with a fun theme. Prepare all the items you will need and arrange them tastefully on a white prepared background.

Many experts cite lack of sharpness as one of the main reasons for poor image quality. Blurred and out-of-focus pictures are considered a defect, which is noticeable not only to a professional, but also to an ordinary user. Such photographs are not interesting to look at, because they cannot convey the beauty and depth of the real picture.

Reasons for bad photography

Let's first look at the root causes of what makes a potentially high-quality photograph absolutely useless?

Shevelenka

Shakiness is the confusion or blurring of the resulting photograph. This occurs due to the movement of the camera when the camera shutter is released. Shaking can occur due to trembling hands or pressing the shutter button too quickly. It has been established that 1/60 of a second is enough at shutter speed to show movement in the frame, therefore, in order for the resulting frame to be sharp enough, the shutter time must be reduced.

It is also necessary to take into account that for different focal lengths, a different exposure time must be selected, during which the movement will not be visible. The optimal exposure time cannot always be calculated using a formula, so a tripod is often used for shooting (I’ll tell you how to choose one). If the exposure time is about a second, then even pressing a button or raising the mirrors can deteriorate the sharpness of the photo. To achieve this, many cameras have a self-timer installed, a built-in mirror pre-raising function, and some cameras can be controlled remotely.

When buying a camera, the question of how to learn to take good photographs arises by itself. Therefore, learn the basic rule that will help you avoid the consequences of movement in your frames: it consists in smoothly pressing the shutter release button and setting the minimum possible shutter speed.

Small depth of field

DOF is one of the most powerful tools used by photographers to visualize their images. DOF refers to the depth of field of the imaged space and may differ in different images.

When shooting with long-focus optics or a macro lens with an open aperture, you get a small depth of field in your photographs. Typically, focusing is done at one point; to do this, press the shutter button only halfway, then focus on the selected object, and only then frame the pictures and press the button all the way.

The focus will not change its location, but a seemingly invisible problem will arise. The technique may make mistakes, so the object may move, and with it the depth of field will change, which will lead to a blurry frame. I'll give you a little advice: to avoid this, you need to choose the closest focus point in relation to the subject.

It is always necessary to take into account that the actual size of the focused point exceeds the display visible on the screen; this is also influenced by the parameters of the photographic equipment used. With Nikon technology, the actual dimensions on the screen almost always coincide with the real focusing area, and the focus Canon cameras Sometimes it does not display real boundaries.

Optical error

All lenses differ in the range of aperture values ​​in which you can get the sharpest and highest quality photographs. Pictures of himself best quality can be obtained in the range f:8 - f:13. As the aperture approaches its maximum open or closed value, the quality of the resulting photographs will deteriorate.

Focus errors

At detailed analysis The question of how to take good photographs, we should not forget that the camera can focus erroneously. To avoid problems due to incorrect focusing, you need to know how the camera focuses and constantly monitor it.

The camera may not focus correctly for the following reasons:

1. Insignificant contrast between the background and the subject, in this case it is difficult for the camera to focus correctly in automatic mode.
2. The presence of several bright objects in the camera's autofocus. In this case, the camera will focus on the object from the foreground, and objects from the background will be blurred.
3. Putting a repeating pattern in the frame almost always leads to a loss of contrast in the photo.
4. Sudden changes in contrast, color and shadow in the focus area prevent the camera from focusing correctly.
5. When shooting small subjects that are much smaller than the focus area. Small objects blend into the background because the camera cannot distinguish them from a distance.
6. When the subject being photographed consists of large quantity small particles, the resulting image is usually blurry. This can be clearly seen in photographs of flowering gardens or meadows.

Back and front focus

During shooting, many photographers make mistakes that deteriorate the quality of the resulting images. Such errors include back and front focus.

The shift of this focus towards the photographer is characterized by front focus. Back focus moves further away from the focal point. Experts deal with this by adjusting the lens.

Sometimes photography enthusiasts use a regular ruler to check the camera lens for front and back focus, but this is not an entirely correct method. The ruler does not allow you to measure the focus area, since this area is not completely displayed in the viewfinder and on the display. The error when measuring the focus area in this way is not a disadvantage of the camera.

To check the camera for back and front focus, use a sheet of paper on which lines are drawn at intervals of a couple of centimeters.

Objects in motion

It would seem that everything is extremely clear here: the higher the speed of movement (of vehicles, people, animals, etc.), the shorter the shutter speed. Many photographers have learned from their own experience that a shutter speed of 1/60 of a second is enough to capture high-quality images of static objects, 1/250 of a second for shooting objects that move at low speed, and 1/500 of a second for shooting fast-moving objects.

Photos taken at fast shutter speeds always come out very clear, while long shutter speeds are preferable for underwater or night photography.

Avoid camera shake while shooting

If your camera has vibration compensation or image stabilization, this setting must be turned on. When the camera is in this mode, its slight movement will not affect the clarity of the resulting images. In cases where a tripod is used for shooting, it is better to turn off the VR/IS mode, as it can, on the contrary, make the pictures not so clear and sharp.

Photographer: Sergey Prozvitsky.

Did you like the photo? By the way, similar pictures can be found in this article: photo shoot on a motorcycle. Okay, let's continue! When shooting, try to get as close to the subject as possible, and for work use lenses with a short focal length, you can also turn off the zoom. Don't forget that decreasing the focus distance reduces camera vibration and this is independent of the shutter speed. If you use a zoom with a variable aperture for shooting, then usually larger aperture values ​​are obtained at smaller focal lengths. And shooting objects from a short distance (for example, flowers) requires a good imagination from the photographer when cropping pictures.

Again, use a tripod or monopod when possible. When taking photos from a tripod, do not forget about the wind, which causes the structure to sway. Many tripods have a special hook that will help prevent movement; you can hang a backpack or bag on it, as well as a heavy weight to secure the device.

Using reflex camera In low light conditions, you will have to take pictures at long shutter speeds. Buy a remote release for shooting. Don’t forget to use the mirror locking function (that is, the exposure delay mode), then this same mirror will not vibrate, and the resulting images will be of high quality and not blurry.

Be sure to study the instructions for the camera in detail to know exactly what functions and modes it has. The locking function also has another purpose: the shutter and mirror are hidden when the shutter is pressed and make it possible to clean the camera matrix. If the camera does not have a mirror lock, then you must use a self-timer.

Don't take pictures with your camera's aperture open

Don't go below f/9 when shooting landscapes, and don't shoot at the smallest aperture unnecessarily.

Purchase a special ND filter if you need to keep your aperture closed to achieve a long shutter speed.

Technical check

How can you take good photographs without adjusting your equipment? After all, errors in focusing can occur both due to the photographer’s own oversight, and due to incorrect settings directly on the camera. Try to avoid such mistakes while shooting. When focusing in manual mode, you need to use the camera's assist functions.

Photographer: Sergey Rodionov.

Before you start shooting, you need to study the instructions for the camera, learn how to focus it correctly in manual mode and use additional settings. Many cameras that have an autofocus feature can provide a visual or audio signal that confirms that the subject is in the camera's focus, use this convenient option.

Remember that autofocus may miss. Such errors can only happen with certain camera and lens combinations. If focus misses happen regularly on a lens that has been in use for a long time, then the camera needs to be checked.

Use the autofocus lock feature. If the subject you are shooting does not fall into autofocus, then you need to focus on the point closest to it and, after locking the autofocus, move to the desired object and reframe. Keep in mind that when autofocus locks, autoexposure lock also engages, so you must use the exposure compensation option.

Many cameras have a viewfinder, be sure to calibrate it as it can become misaligned over time.

Keep an eye on your ISO

Check your camera's ISO regularly. Many cameras suppress noise at high ISO settings, so fine details in these photos appear under-sharp or completely blurred. It is not recommended to shoot at high ISO in daylight.

Photographer: Maxim Cherenkov.

If the noise reduction function degrades the sharpness of your photos, you should turn it off.

Continuous shooting

Use multi-frame mode for shooting (I’ll talk about this in detail). When you press the shutter with your finger, the camera may move slightly. The internal movement of the mirror causes the camera to shake from the inside. By using multi-frame shooting mode, such camera shake can be avoided. This is very convenient, since the camera takes several frames one by one, and after that you can choose the best one.

Even any modern phone (smartphone) has similar functionality: take, for example, an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy– pictures from these devices for subsequent publication on Instagram are simply amazing.

Camera settings

It is preferable to choose the RAW format. Image processing is carried out by the camera processor. The RAW format is suitable for so-called raw frames, so in the future it allows for the best possible processing of images in converters and graphic editors. The compressed JPG format is suitable for saving already processed photos.

You can also sharpen images in JPG format using a variety of programs. You can read about many defects in the photo in this article.

Conclusion

We looked at the main mistakes that most often lead to deterioration in the sharpness of photographs. Incorrect depth of field or movement are the main reasons that lead to poor-quality images. Taking into account all the camera settings, as well as studying the features of proper shooting, you can avoid many errors.

This turned out to be a little difficult to understand, but quite useful article. I assure you that having fully understood all the terms and concepts, you will perceive this material as instructions for peeling tangerines, nothing more, and over time you will completely stop thinking about how to take good photographs - everything will happen by itself.

In the meantime, in order to continue to learn the art of photography, I suggest subscribing to my blog updates. And don’t forget, please, leave a comment – ​​your opinion about the article.

Best regards, Maxim Izmailov.