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When you go to an amusement park with a digital photography camera then you are probably planning on taking around a hundred photos of your family and friends. Now, I recently looked at the photos my friend took when he went to Disneyland and I was shocked how bad they looked. Sure, he just took them for the memories, however, bad photos are not very nice to keep compared to quality composed shots. This article will provide some simple tips for taking photos when at an amusement park.

First off, you are probably going to end up using the automatic mode when at an amusement park. The reasons are mostly because people don’t like waiting to take pictures and waiting for you to set the shutter, aperture, focus, etc can be very annoying.

Of all the settings, you really want to make sure you have manual focus. Automatic focus messes up too much and can ruin a lot of your photos.

You can manually set the shutter speed to very fast settings when you want to capture a motion shot of, for example, someone on a ride. Or you could blur the motion and create a really cool effect with a slow shutter speed.

Compositionally, if you are taking people shots at amusement parks you should try to follow these simple rules.

1. The Rule of Thirds

Try avoiding to place people dead center. Place them to the left, right, etc.

2. Depth

Rather than place people in front of a background, try placing them at an angle to the background. This will make the background look like it has more depth. This is especially useful when taking shots of people standing in front of an attraction or monument.

3. Simplicity

As much as you may want to capture everything in one shot, it will look much nicer if you take a few shots isolating on one particular subject in each shot. Amusement parks are very cluttered with different attention grabbing items. Try focusing on one.

Al Sanchez has a Free Photo 101 E-course that teaches digital photography. He also has another free program on how to Sell Your Pictures Online

Taking photos outdoors can be really fun. Be prepared though, as a lot of obstacles can come and prevent you from taking great photos. This article will give you specific obstacles I have faced and how I overcame them. Hopefully you can use this info to your advantage.

Obstacle 1:

The first obstacle I have faced when taking photos in the outdoors such as mountains, deserts, etc is forgetting equipment. I once forgot to bring my wide angle lens when I went to take landscape photos. Awful mistake.

Solution:

Check all your equipment before you leave. Be sure you have your lenses, batteries, flash, etc.

Obstacle 2:

I once went to take pictures when it was snowing and ended up getting snow on my lens. I cleaned it with my jacket and got a big black blob on the lens. I didn’t know this and took over a hundred pictures eventually to find out that they all had a blob dead center.

Solution:

Bring a cleaning kit for your lens whenever you are going to take pictures. And do not touch the lens with anything except a special lens cloth.

Obstacle 3:

There was a time when I went to take photos and ended up having all my photos blurry because the light was low and I used slower shutter speeds.

Solution:

Bring a tripod with you when you are going to take pictures. It can be a hassle to drag around, but it will save you from the trouble of blurry photos that cannot be fixed.

Al Sanchez has a Free Photo 101 E-course that teaches digital photography. He also has another free program on how to Sell Your Pictures Online

Taking close up photos of people in digital photography can yield some great results. Close up photos make the person being photographed look more appealing. This article will provide you some simple tips for taking close up photos of people.

First off, unlike what you may think, close up photos taken of people are actually far from the subject. What I mean by this is that the camera is far from the subject. What is done, however, is the camera is zoomed in or a telephoto lens is used to get the photo very close to the subject.

What this does is make the person look more appealing. If you took a close up photo of a person and positioned the camera right in front of them, they would end up looking distorted and unflattering.

They have specific lenses for portrait photos of people, however, all you need to do to take better people close ups is to zoom in. You can do this with your optical zoom. A telephoto lens would work great, however, is not needed to yield great results.

When you use a longer lens what will happen is the background will get out of focus. What will also happen is less light will be let into the camera. This is because the lens is farther from the camera and more light is needed to travel to expose the shot. Because of this, you ought to use a tripod when taking close up shots. This will make sure that the person is fully focused and not blurred at all.

Al Sanchez has a Free Photo 101 E-course that teaches digital photography. He also has another free program on how to Sell Your Pictures Online

A picture can say a thousand words. I’m sure you have heard this before. However, there is a very good reason this saying was made. Pictures are very powerful at telling stories. If you can take pictures to tell interesting and captivating stories, your photos will become much more interesting and viewers will become addicted and craving for more of your photos. This article will give you some info on how to tell stories in your shots.

The first step in creating stories in your photos is developing a main concept to work on. Concepts could be things such as pleasure, peace, happiness, anger, etc.

After you get the concept you want to tell the story on now you are going to focus on symbols. Symbols are devices that represent things such as the concepts above. For example, flowers could be a symbol for love.

After you have this down you are going to want to think of a story tell that has to do with a flower and is related to love or whatever concept you have. For example, you could have two flowers positioned so that they are kissing or two flowers positioned so they’re holding hands.

Of course, the example above is a somewhat strange and quirky style of photographing. This would work great for a quirky photographing style. You can try different ways to position the flowers for different styles of photography.

Overall, simple stories are the best to work with. Harder and more complex stories are difficult to show in a single image and can be hard for people to understand. You could, however, set up a series of pictures that tell a story.

Al Sanchez has a Free Photo 101 E-course that teaches digital photography. He also has another free program on how to Sell Your Pictures Online

It’s pretty easy to take a picture that looks visually appealing. All you have to really do is follow some simple compositional techniques. However, taking breathtaking photos is a lot more difficult. This article will attempt to demystify how to take breathtaking photos that everyone loves and is transfixed by.

First off, a great photo that is breathtaking is not just visually appealing, it does something else:

It tells a story.

Great photos have a message that they tell and this message is very appealing and interesting to viewers. For example, I saw a picture earlier today of a guy that was jumping off the Eiffel Tower doing that parachuting thing. He was frozen in mid air and looked like he was walking over the city. This is definitely telling a story.

The next biggest thing you need to do for a breathtaking photo is have the ability to use your style. Your style is how you tell the story. Your style will be different from all other photographers. Two people could tell the same story but in very different ways. One could emphasize the humorous parts whereas the other could emphasize the sad parts.

Your style is really powerful and will make breathtaking photos if it is strong enough. A great way to develop your style is to actually look at other photos. Look at pictures that have a style similar to the one you want to develop. Notice how they compose the shots, how the emphasize certain parts rather than others. Emulate these techniques, do not merely copy another persons style.

Al Sanchez has a Free Photo 101 E-course that teaches digital photography. He also has another free program on how to Sell Your Pictures Online

When it comes to taking pictures of animals, you are really going to want to get the best possible pictures you can get. This article will try and give you simple tips for taking great photos of animals.

There are two different types of animals you can photograph: your pets and the captive, and the wild animals.

When taking photos of pets or animals in cages you really don’t have as much to worry about except compositional techniques. The animals won’t be moving like crazy and should be easier to handle. If its your own pet you could feed them some food and they’ll stay still for sure.

Photographing wild animals is a bit trickier. These animals are in the wild and run from people. You’re going to have to sneak towards them and capture a shot of them quick. If you’re photographing fast animals like birds you have to be extra quick as they could fly off in seconds.

When taking animal shots you should try to keep the background simple. Try to avoid overly complex backgrounds that distract the viewer. Also, be sure that you get as close as you can. Far away shots of animals can work, but they are harder to pull off than close up shots.

To get great close up shots you should really think of getting a telephoto lens. There are some telephoto lenses built so you do not need a tripod. This is great as hauling a tripod around when taking shots of wild animals can be difficult.

Al Sanchez has a Free Photo 101 E-course that teaches digital photography. He also has another free program on how to Sell Your Pictures Online

What does it mean to compose? To create, to arrange, to order, to write…when you take a photo you are composing a shot. Of course, some compositions are better than others. In general, the great compositions of photos all have similar things in common. These similarities have been turned into compositional techniques and I will be sharing them with you right now.

One of the easiest compositional techniques to implement is to keep the photo simple.

A simple photo does a number of things. It makes the viewer understand the photo better. They don’t have to worry about what to look at. They are instantly drawn into the main subject and don’t have to worry about what they should be looking at.

Simple shots can be taken by isolating your subject. Instead of taking twenty donkeys in a picture, take twenty pictures of each donkey separately. You can also get closer to the subject and this will reduce complexity and clutter.

Another compositional technique you can use is patterns. Patterns are everywhere and photographing them can make for great shots. You could take pictures of the patterns of seats at a movie theatre, the pattern of golfer holes, etc.

One thing many photographers do is take pictures at eye level. Try experimenting and moving around. Get up a tree, bend down and shoot from below. Try different perspectives. This can greatly change the impact of the photo and the way the viewer looks at the subject of interest.

Try these simple tips out and notice the difference they will make in the coming days.

Al Sanchez has a Free Photo 101 E-course that teaches digital photography. He also has another free program on how to Sell Your Pictures Online

Shutter speed can be easily used and make for great action shots. It can be used to blur motion or to stop motion dead in its tracks. This article will attempt to take you through the Shutter Speed world and hopefully make you realize that it’s very easy.

Freezing Motion

Have you seen the matrix? Okay you remember when Trinity jumps up and freezes mid air about to kick the cop. This is freezing in motion. You can do this with photography and stop the motion of cars, planes, birds, bugs, rodents, monkeys, elephants, etc.

To freeze motion, you must use a shutter speed that is fast enough to catch the motion. For faster movements like birds you need faster shutter speeds. Slower movements don’t need as fast shutter speeds.

When you speed up the shutter speed what happens is a larger aperture or ISO rating is needed to expose the image properly. This can make for noisy images. Be careful when adjusting settings.

Blurring Motion

Have you seen those awesome photos of waterfalls that have the water blurred and really majestically looking? Well you can do the same exact thing with using slow shutter speeds. A slow shutter speed used with action shots will make the action blur as a result. If you take a photo of a car using a slow shutter like 1/30 the car will leave streaks and be blurred. When using this slow shutter speed at night you get the lights blurring into lines of red.

It’s really fun to mess with the shutter speed and action events. Experiment and try new things. And when you’re using a slow shutter speed, bring a tripod.

Al Sanchez has a Free Photo 101 E-course that teaches digital photography. He also has another free program on how to Sell Your Pictures Online

The rule of thirds is a very useful tool for composing images in photography. And to top it off, it’s free! Doesn’t require any add on equipment to your camera, any shoe mounts, anything like that! This article will attempt to demystify the mysterious Rule of Thirds.

To follow this rule, simply take a photo and divide it up into three sections vertically and three sections horizontally. Now, as you can see from doing this there are three boxes on the top, three in the middle, and three at the bottom. The box in the middle of all of them is the center. This compositional rules basically advises you not to take pictures in that middle box.

What this does is makes you have to try and position the subject so that he/she or it is not dead center. This creates more visually interesting images.

When you take a photo of a person, the main focal point will be the eyes. Now, you can take a photo of a person dead center, however, follow the rule still! Put the eyes anywhere but the middle box. You can put the eyes in the top box instead. Their body will be dead center but their face will be in the upper area.

Now, when you follow this rule you also need to be careful to leave plenty of head room when shooting people. This room is space around the head and will make your photo not look claustrophobic. Also, if your person is looking towards the left, leave plenty of room at the left side of the photo and less on the right.

Al Sanchez has a Free Photo 101 E-course that teaches digital photography. He also has another free program on how to Sell Your Pictures Online

Everyone says to use lines in your photos. I’m sure you have heard to use lines in your photos to lead the viewer to the subject. There are, however, a LOT more different ways you can use the lines. This article will attempt to give you new knowledge you’ve never before known about how powerful lines really are.

Everything in the world is made up of lines. Photos will have lines whether you like it or not. Using the lines right will make your photos much nicer. As mentioned before, one simple way to use lines is to have them lead the viewer somewhere. For example, roads have lines that lead the viewer to a point in the distant.

Lines, however, are also very effective in giving depth. A photo, when you think about it, is a two dimensional image. It has no depth at all. When you take a picture of stairs and you’re facing directly at them then the lines will give no sense of depth. It’ll look two dimensional. Now, those stairs…if you move and take a photo of the stairs at an angle so the lines go from the background to the foreground, this will create depth and lead towards somewhere.

The most effective way to use lines to lead somewhere is to use the depth effect. Have them lead from the background all the way to the foreground. This will make the photo look three dimensional.

Of course, using lines in that way described above is very dynamic and creates a sense of motion. If you take a photo of lines straight on and horizontal it’ll look very calm, relaxing, and peaceful. Think of landscape photos or shots of the beach.

Lines are a very powerful tool in photography. They’re powerful for ANY visual medium. Drawers have used lines for hundreds of years.

Al Sanchez has a Free Photo 101 E-course that teaches digital photography. He also has another free program on how to Sell Your Pictures Online