Friday 31 January 2014

INSIDER TIPS: Bringing "Quiet" into your Photos



It was a noisy busy afternoon trying to bake cupcakes with my choco-holic daughter, trying to convince her, to do things MY way and STOP licking everything! But while the cupcakes were cooling down, I pressed Pause. Took a breath in my Quiet behind the lens. That Chocolate icing just looked too yummy.

So how do you make a QUIET shot out of that messy situation?

INSIDER TIPS:

1. Decide what your shot's about!

Did I want the noisy busy atmosphere? the kitchen that looked like a blender had exloded? Not today, maybe some other time. Today we're trying: Quiet Focus. So I zoomed in to focus on the icing.
CROP CROP CROP!!! Cut out ALL the background. Don't include anything that doesn't add to the shot. Be minimialist. Isolate your subject. Go in close.

2. Blur the whatever's left.

Blurring your background creates a smooth soft canvas to put behind your subject. Colours melt into one another and your eye doesn't have to jump around from detail to detail searching for your subject. It goes straight in to find the yummy and there it can Pause. It can rest. That's what creates that Quiet.


Did you find these tips helpful? Do you have any advice to add in the comments below ? 
Speak to me people! I'd love to hear from you.
































* Best Kept Secret: Equipment
Ok, I believe the photographer is always more than the equipment he/she uses, BUT I'm learning that investing in the right equipment just makes it all so much easier!

Lens: 50mm f 1.8 Canon 
This lens creates magic! It is somehow sharper than my zooms and you really CAN see the difference. You are able to open your aperture, much wider (to f1.8) which allows light to flood in, lets you shoot in dark places without flash and blurs the background beautifully. And so isolating your subject. 

The only hassle is inching your entire body backwards and forwards until you have the right shot in your frame. Call it Photo-Contortion. But it really is worth it! Not only for your stiff muscles - also for those magical shots.

Without this lens these shots are still possible - the shots above were taken on f4, which many lenses should stop down to. But somehow it's not the same. I just love my 50mm and think it's many a photographer's best kept secret.

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