Kelly Paal Photography

Most of my site and my articles are geared toward the aspiring amateur photographer. Probably someone who has had some training and is looking to improve on their skills. But I realized that, judging by a lot of my emails, there are a lot of hobbyist photographers. Meaning they are the official photography buff in their family. They have no desire to take lessons or classes nor do they want to be professional but they do want to improve their skills. So I thought with that in mind here are some tips for the family photographer.

1. Know your camera. I know its a point and shoot and all auto but really learn that camera. Most p&s cameras come with all sorts of cool little settings. I know this because there are ramped up versions of this on DSLRs. For example that little turn knob thingy with the little tiny icons on it. That is your one handy little button. If you see a tiny guy that looks like he’s running, that is your setting for action shots, i.e. your kid’s sporting event. The icon that looks like a profile image, that is for portraits. The icon that looks like a mountain with a sun above it, that’s for landscape shots. You get my meaning, whatever your camera and I know this is a big PITA you’ve got to read the manual.

2. Crop, I know I sound like a sad little echo but cropping is the biggest most important thing in my mind. Doesn’t matter who you are crop to what your focus is. I don’t know what you’re taking a shot of unless you tell me and you tell me by cropping out, getting closer to your chosen subject, so that with one look I know what you want me to see.

3. Action always goes into the shot. This one can be hard to remember but never have someone walking, running, or looking out of the frame of the shot. I don’t mean look at the camera I mean when you crop make sure if they are moving there is more space in the area they are moving to than behind them. It’s takes some work but you can get used to this. Looking off to the side, same thing, make sure the edge of the frame is not where they are looking to.

4. Never in the center, well almost never, but for you you may as well make that never. I mean there are exceptions to every rule but there is this thing called rule of thirds. You imagine lines, equally spaced, two down and two across, this divides the frame into thirds. Where they cross is where you want to place your focal point. I think I’ve read there are some camera’s out there with the lines in camera, but I’m not sure which ones, probably the expensive ones LOL.

5. You don’t need a very expensive camera. But when going digital look for as many pixels and you can afford. But also look for how it stores the photos. Camera only means a usb transfer. Some sort of removable media is handy as long as your computer has ports for it. My DSLR uses as SD card and my computer has the exact same port so it’s a wonderfully easy take out and plug in sort of deal. You also don’t need to spend hundreds on photo editing software. You’re not going to be making huge enlargements and you’re not going to need all sorts of special effects. You just need something to clean your photos up, and possibly crop/edit them. There are tons of free versions of software out there to try.

Good luck. It can be hard to be the official family photographer. You’re never in the shots and you’re always “working” as each family event. Have fun though and remember you are saving all sorts of memories for everyone!