Bob's Photography Class

What a special treat we had today! Bob Napoli taught us the in's and out's of taking a good picture! Here are some of the tips he provided us with:

1. Make sure your digital camera has 5 or more mega pixels.

2. Purchase a camera with an eye piece/view finder. Use the eye piece every time you take a picture, this will help to eliminate a blurry picture.

3. Take advantage of the views while you are in the car. Turn off the flash and take the picture right through the front window.

4. Use the sepia and black and white features of your camera. Sepia is excellent for pictures of people or use black and white for snow shots. Play around with these features for some unique pictures.

6. Crop your pictures! Do this in your camera or on the computer. 'Crop out' all background distractions.

7. When taking pictures of people make sure you use a plain background. Busy backdrops create major distractions therefore taking away from your picture.

8. When taking pictures of people watch the background. Too often a picture is taken of a person with a tree growing from their head!

9. When doing a photo shoot, use red in the picture - whether you have the subject wear a red hat or sweater! Red draws the eye and will create a much more interesting picture.

10. Texture. Look for texture shots. Taking a picture of an old rope, stones, anchors and doorways makes for a unique photo.

11. When taking pictures outside be sure to cut out any 'bald', white sky. A completely white, cloudy sky is BORING. Be sure to leave this out of the picture or take pictures on days the sky is bright blue or when it is only partly cloudy.

12. Use your flash only when necessary. Your flash will only light up your surroundings about 10-15 feet. Don't bother using it outside if the subject is further away, it won't do anything other than drain your battery. Whenever possible, turn your flash off to retain battery life.

13. When shooting a portrait have the subject(s) turn to the side and tilt their head slightly down. This will eliminate glare on eye glasses and foreheads.

14. Use black construction paper as a background for close-up shots. Black holds the picture in and creates a natural frame behind the subject.

15. Use odd numbers in your photos. If you are taking a picture of a bunch of flowers hold the 4th out of the way to make the group an odd number. Clean leaves off of and around flowers.

16. Your eye should lead toward the subject of a picture. Taking a picture of a house with the road leading towards it will draw the eye into the photo.

17. Never take a picture with the subject matter dead center in the photo. BORING.

18. The subject matter of all pictures should be in one or more of the four corners of the photo.

19. When taking landscape shots, never have the sky as half and the ground as the other half. Break photos up into 3rds.

20. Lastly, when taking a landscape shot be sure to include some foreground. This will add dimensions into your photo.

Incorporate these tips into your photography for professional looking photos!

Thanks so much to Bob for all of his and effort on teaching us this class. We really enjoyed it and learned so much! Looking forward to next time ;)