Section A

Taking Better Photos with the Camera You Now Have

1. Move In!

Through the years I've seen thousands of photos taken by everyday people that all seem to
share the same common maladies.  Foremost of these is standing back too far, or not zooming in
enough, when you pop the shutter.  A photo of a pet, friend, or relative should show the friend
or relative, not the entire back 40 acres behind them or half the living room wall.  The photo
in Section 2 shows a typical snapshot.  You know.... The kind where the subject is so far away 
from the camera that you can't tell if it's Uncle Cleatus or your cat.  Move in!  Or, if your 
camera has a zoom lens, *zoom* in!

But a word of caution if you zoom in and use flash.  You may be too far away for the flash to 
adequately light the subject.  Make sure you're within flash range, especially if you're in a
large room with dark walls and ceiling.  These absorb light like crazy and make a decent
powered flash seem like a firefly.  The modern Point and Shoot cameras have small built-in flash
units in them, but they lose their effectiveness if you get more than 8 or 10 feet away from the 
subject, unless you use a faster film.  More on that later.

But if you're outside and using daylight, the distance from you to the subject, or the amount of
zoom, won't make any difference in the exposure.  However, if you're zoomed in on 
something, make darn sure that you're holding the camera steady or you'll get blurry pictures.
Holding the camera steady is in Section 5.


People closeups are best taken at a distance of about 6 feet.
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This means that, to get a tighter head and shoulders shot, you will have to zoom in, or use a 
telephoto lens.  If you're too close to the subject, any features closer to the camera tend to 
be enlarged.  The last thing Cousin Harvey wants to be reminded of is his "big honker", and 
he will be if you have him look straight at the camera and shoot from three feet away.  But 
then again, if Cousin Harvey free-lances as a clown, why not?  Since features closer to the 
camera are emphasized by being shown as larger, there may be times when this would work
to the photographer's advantage.

Another example of this little tactic might be to photograph an artist holding a couple of 
brushes out in front of her/him, toward the camera.  This will make them appear larger 
in the final photograph, thus emphasizing them.

So we see that common "errors" can sometimes be turned around and used to advantage.