"Keep your face to the sun, and your shadows will be behind you" ~Walt Whitman
I had the pleasure of indulging in a great New England Fall tradition.... apple picking! I went with a good friend of mine and of course, brought along my camera. Secretly, I wasn't there for the apples. There was a sea of sunflowers that lead you to the apple trees at the back of the farm. Perfect photo op!!! I mean, who doesn't love sunflowers against a beautiful blue sky? I thought, what better way to show you a few tricks then to give you some examples. (because, of course you guys are always in the back of my head) All of these pictures were taken with my Nikon D40 DSLR camera with a UV lens. A UV lens helps to bring out the natural color of the object and drown out the bright light (here it was the sun)
So, let's dive in, shall we?!
First tip: Its all about depth perception. Just like when drawing a picture, you want to give depth to your photo. Instead of taking a picture of the flower straight on, I moved the camera over to show all of the flowers behind it. By angling my camera slightly higher, I am able to show "levels" of depth leading all the way back to the tree line. You first focus on the flowers but then get drawn to what is behind them as well.
Second tip: Close ups. Make sure your camera is focused on the object. When the object is bigger, this can make your job easier. It's also good idea here to again, create depth perception. By taking a picture of part of the flower and off setting it, I was able to capture the flowers behind it. I also wanted to make the focus the bees in the center and not just the flower itself. So, by off setting the flower, your eyes are drawn to the bees first. The second picture runs off the same idea. Though the flower is not centered, you are drawn to it because it is in focus, and the rest is burry.
Third tip: Now, we are going to switch the focus. The object closest, in this case the flower, is out of focus, while the background is in focus. By having the background in focus, you are drawn to it first and then come back to the blurry flower. At the same time, this creates depth perception. The blurry flower in the front helps to you to perceive the size of the flowers while not taking away from the actual picture itself.
Fourth tip: Placement. Play around with angles. Stand in front of, beside, on top of, behind your objects. Try to find the best angle or light. You could take a picture one way, change the angle and get a whole new feeling. Also, feel free to stage your object. The picture below was my bag of apples. Instead of just setting it down and snapping a picture, it was placed on a bale of hay and I placed a couple of apples beside it. This creates a different feel to the picture. As my apples sat there, all staged and picture ready, I walked around and snapped pictures from different angles. Below was the winner.
Hope you found these quick tips useful. You'll become a professional in no time. I just know it. Then people will be coming up to you asking "who took these amazing pictures?" You can sit there with a smile and say "I did!" Then, pat your self on the back, because, you deserve it.
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Happy snapping!!!~ Amanda
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