This site is an archive of the OneSpace Forums. Return to forum index.
This site is an archive of the OneSpace Forums. Return to forum index.
You will need... A Camera!
Other cool stuff that comes in handy is some sort of post production/cataloging type softwear. Before I got Lightroom (that's what the professionals use) I used Picasa, it's made by google and it's free, in the sense that you don't have to pay for it, monetarily anyhow, I could now enter into a philasophical monalog as to how nothing is ever actualy free, but now is probably not the time or place.
This is a picture of my son, he's very beautiful, that's nothing to do with photography and has everything to do with genetics, alas not my genes, as much as it pains me to say it is in fact his mums fault, she is increadably beautiful, quite probably why I fell in love with her, at least that's the only justification I can come up with.
OK! This is my son taken with (as far as I can recall a 24mm Canon lense) on my Canon 40D, I expect all you Xyupies are using iPhones, shame on you. But besides that and the fact that I dont realy know why I am doing this...
I dont realy know why I like that picture beyond the fact that it is of my child whom I love, whom I look at all the time, whom I know every little part of down to his long toes and his knees that he inherited from my dad (the toes he get's from his mum).
Maybe if my pictures are good, if people like them at least, it's because I love my subject so much that it must sort of shines through into my pictures.
Some things to remember!
Don't take pictures standing up at eye level, they are invariably boaring. (OK! Sometimes not)
The more pictures of your child you take the more comfortable they will become having their picture taken, the best pictures come when they stop playing up for the camera, some of them anyway. The fact is that in this picture my son is fed up with having his picture taken and want's to get back to minecraft.
Eye contact is quite impotant I think, generaly anyway.
My favourit pictures of my kids have the camera below their eye level.
I don't realy know what I am talking about : )
I just take pictures of my kids and post them on facebook and some people like them, which is nice.
If you have to say 'Cheese' your picture will probably not be so good, but then maybe, it might, who knows, the only way to find out is to take pictures, lots and lots of pictures.
Keep taking pictures and remember how lucky your are, just twenty years ago you had to just shoot rolls of 24/36 shots that you then had to PAY to get developed. Now you can take three hundred in an afternoon for basicaly NOTHING!
And this is very basicaly the extent of my knowledge. Except maybe! don't worry about lying on the floor 'to get that shot' in a play park while other parents look on with contempt.
If you have read this far then take some pictures, upload them to imgur.com (it's free) and share them here, if you want : )
Thanx!
In this picture the window in the room is to the right, but I also used my flash gun which is pointing up to the celing which is why he is lit up like that : )
In fact if I recall correctly the whole reason he is stood there is that this was the day I got my flash gun and so I was trying it out. Before I got my flash gun and relied only on the built in flash I never liked flash photography much as it makes light all harsh and not natural looking.
But! With my Canon speedlight 430EX II you can point the flash where ever you want, which is handy.
Also it was not free : )
In fact costs as much as some quite decent point and shoot cameras.
Well, I am posting two pictures. In this one, one, I was saved by an amazing setting, I had a dreadful camera, an early digital that normally ruined more pictures than it took. Buy Izzy was having such a great time on the bridge I could not get her off it!
This one one was an early experiment with a Fuji S9100, an OK camera with a proper lens. I was quite pleased with it, as taking shots on the ice isn't easy!
Yes, she has grown a bit since tha previos picture!
Great pics guys! I am determined to join the fun......watch this space!
I rememberd some more Arty things!
I was once told this by a wizend old photographer in a hut at the top of a mountain that it took three days to climb upto...
The differance between photography and painting is this! (young padawan) With a painting you start with a blank piece of paper and you must put things where you want them to be, it's sort of a process of adding. Taking a photograph is the opposit as you start with a full canvas and have to take things away.
Or something like that anayway.
Also can I say Sergiozed!
The top picture is the better as it has an interesting angle and it's looking up and there are jusy two things, your daughter and the bridge and then behind the clear blue sky with nothing to distract from the subject...
Next time you should be on the other side of the bridge so that the shadows of the rope do not fall across her face : ) (except of course you will have to go back in time and all that)
Unless that's what you are trying to do.
That's a nice way of getting potraits, to kneel in front of the subject and look up so that there is only sky behind them : ) or minimal things at least.
Nice!
Hi Bubblegum,
thanks for info. Sometimes I just find it difficult to wait, and end up just snapping, with predictably boring results. And I can't remember the many times I tried to take photos with a brightly lit sky in the background, only to remember that without a fill flash the faces come out too dark to see details! Anyway, here is one where the hat let through just enough light to light the face. Again, early digital camera, by today standard little better than a mobile phone!
PS. But then is a bad craftsman who blames his tools!
If your camera allows you to control exposure in some way then get it to take the light reading from the subjects face. But this is kind of the difference between point and shoot or phone cameras and DSLR cameras, the ability to control...
Sensor sensativity, i.e. ISO, shutter speed and appature size.
Though some do allow you to do stuff to varying degries.
Sometimes with basic cameras it is possible to fool them by placing your hands around or in front of the camera to make it darker, or pointing it at the ground to get it's reading and then pointing it (quickly) at the subject. The sort of cameras that have a button that has two steps, i.e. the first one gets all the readings and then the second one takes the shot, they are easier to fool.
Ultimatly though in order to take pictures of people with bright lights behind them, like the sun, easily, you need to have control of, ISO, Apature and Shutter speed.
Here is my son from way back in 2011 when I first had my proper camera (as in DSLR)
That is a bright sunny day with me looking up at him, before I knew how to use the manual setting, the camera is, I would guess, taking it's reading from some where around his Tshirt and collar of his jacket... I would guess, only because that is what is properly in focus.
: )
As a side note I would just like to say that I don't know what I'm talking about, people often say they like my pictures on facebook, I don't realy know why and that's not some sort of tourtured artists shy modesty. I know that my pictures are just very average, take a look around the internet and you will find amazing pictures, I regularly see pictures that make me think why am I even bothering!
But I do because I just have to keep taking pictures : )
I started taking pictures, of my children mainly, when I first became a single parent on some very terrible camera phone, Then I spent about a hundred quid on a cheap point and shoot, then I upgraded to a Canon IXUS it was a model 80 and at the time, a sort of a mid range point and shoot camera that did everything for you, basicaly.
Then I started to save up for a Canon 40d which was around £500 second hand on eBay at the time, a rather large sum of money for someone on income support with two children, but I managed after about a year.
And then! I just read lots and lots of websites about taking photographs, lots, I still do, there is no great secret to taking half decent pictures beyond... Well! Just like everything else in the world, it's down to you to do it, through perseverance and inquisitivenes, by asking questions, searching out stuff and doing.
The only limits are the ones you give yourslef.
If you want to take pictures of your children then just keep taking pictures, I used to sometimes take three hundred or more in a day and sometimes none of them were any good and then sometimes some of them were, so I learned what worked and what didn't... and now I don't have to take so many pictures and sometimes I take pictures I like : )
I love taking pics, but I have to say I start to glaze over when you talk about exposures etc, it just doesn't sink in, or I don't get it or whatever, but the weekend is coming and I am determined to get arty and take some pics!
(I would like to meet that wizened old photographer who lives in a hut.....at the top of a mountain.......that takes 3 days to climb.....! Just to see his house! 
)
Brilliant!
Hi Sparklinglime I though maybe you'd dissapeared : )
Anna! My kids eyes often glaze over when I talk to them too.
You dont need to concern yourself with ISO, Shutter Speed and Apature size if you are just taking pictures with a point and shoot or a camera phone as it's all done for you.
But if you want to progress from that then it's something you need to get to know.
My Canon 40D has a fully automated setting, but I don't think there is much use in spending lots of money on a DSLR and then setting it to auto, though I see people who do, and I do too when I'm just about to hand it to my daughter, so she can take pictures of cats and dogs around the village... Like this : )
And that! is what that cat thinks of my daughter's invasion of it's privacy.
If you realy want to learn how to take pictures, then don't listen to my inane ramblings go here, I do and I've learnt lots from there.
In this day and age if you're sat in front of a computer you have the answers to everything at your fingertips.
I of course already had the answers to everything, or an answer for at least, or so I've been told, by my mum mostly and then a few girlfriends.
(joke)
But bubblegum it is so much more interesting talking about it with you, than having to do our own research!
Love the pic of the cat! When my daughter was about 5 we went to Tunisia, I bought my daughter a disposable camera with 36 pics. When we got home, I paid for it to be developed...there was one fantastic photo of me and my mum smiling at her (kids can capture lovely photos of people who love them) and ALL the rest were of random stray cats that she encountered! That still tickles me now, she still has the photos!
Sounds like my daughter, she has a cat and dog obsession : )
Here's my Darling the love of my life!
<br>
She is lovely abt
Happy abt! : )
It's lovely when they are that age and like having their picture taken and give you biv un self conciuos smiles...
Nowadays mine are often prone to bribing me, yes daddy you can take my picture if you get me sweets!
: )
ABT, what lovely pictures, she looks so happy! Did you take them with a camera or phone?
Anna, when are we going to see some of your pictures?
Bubblegum, just makes me laugh when you say you don't know what you talking about. Who cares, you know what to do....I actually learned quite a bit about ISO and all that, but fail miserably when I have to get down on my knees in the middle of the a shopping mall to take the 'perfect'picture. I just can't face the "Dad, STOP embarrassing me!" shouts form my daughter! And anyway, but the time I have set up the shot, metered it, fiddled with knobs and buttons on my camera I never even knew existed...she is moved off and doing something else!
Keep 'em coming guys, I'm loving this thread!
abt what lovely photos, she is gorgeous!
OK sergiozed, here is one of my photos that I am quite proud of! Can you see the stone people on the balcony! 
Whe you upload the pictures to imgur select the bit that says 'large thumbnail before selecting the BBCode bit.
Like in the picture bellow, that way the formating will be a bit happier.
Good picture Anna, did you shout DON'T JUMP! DON'T JUMP! SHE ISN'T WORTH IT!
Posative and negative space or something. My daughter building things with stones this afternoon at the beach.
V-E-R-Y nice bubblegum! What a beaut!
(She has a little dolls house behind her!)
It's our local cafe, or one of them, we have two down at the beach... shame it ruins the composition of my nice picture though. : )
Here is my son trying to do to my daughter what I often do to them, though less of late as they are getting just too big and heavy... But! It's that thing where you hold them by the wrists and spin them round : )
We are lucky to live by the sea, I can pick them up from school and walk along the beach on the way home : )
Great picture, they look like they are wrestling with each other! Lucky you living by the sea, its one of my favourite places to be.
Gorgeous!! Is that one of those fish eye lenses? (like I know what I am talking about!) The edges seem rounded?
So.......ahem.....being very blonde......how do I add a picture?
Abra
I don't think it is you or your blondness Abra i haven't a clue either, i'm sure one of those that have already posted pictures will come along soon and tell us how to do it!
Go to imgur.com to upload your picture and then a couple of posts up here is a picture i posted that should help.
Once you've uploaded your PIC make sure to select large thumbnail and then just copy the line of text in the box labeled BBCode and then paste it here:)
Basically.
:)
Thanks bubbs 
OK!
Clearer instructions...
And navigate to where ever you have your picture : )
And then...
And then...
Click on Large Thumbnail and then copy the line of code under 'BBCode (Message Boards & forums)' And paste it here : )
You can always press the 'Preview' button rather than the 'Post' button and see if it's going to work first.
Really love everyone's photos. I feel very inspired. Although I only have my camera on my phone. I'll have a look at the website and see if I can work out how to post something.
Oops. Somehow that was very much larger than I expected. This was my youngest son some time ago in my mum's garden. I think it is a big out of focus due to size. This was one of my favourite pictures of him when he was little.
Abra
Hopefully this one wont be so huge!!!
Abra
As you can see from this one, he has changed somewhat, unfortunately the curls have long gone
Abra
Go Abra! Beautiful pictures! The one taken through the round hole in the playground is a classic!
Bubblegum, nice haircut! Are you going mainstream?
Sergiozed! My daughter cut my hair, revenge I suspect, clippers with no attachmet, that's like a grade zero or something, I dunno, I'm not up on all that! But! people started calling me Heisenberg.
: )
I too like the picture through the playground thing Abra!
Kids with inoccent, unselfconscious expressions : )
My daughter! Very much aware that she is being photographed.
I love your photos bubblegum. They look so original.
I like the way you have used the reflection, Bubblegum.
Yes a shaved head is a grade zero, but you know what they say..."what's the difference between a bad and good haircut? About ten days!" I will never forget the day that my youngest went to the barber with his brother and asked for the wrong thing. He went in with longish, spiked hair and came out bald. The slogan on the hairdressers was "From boys to men." When I saw my son, I said "From Wolverine to snooker ball."
Thank you for liking my pictures : )
Taken on my crappy old Sony point and shoot :) it was the good lighting in the room ^_^ hehe
And my phone ^_^ lol love black and white :)
Love this one :') hehe my phone, again :)
This was when she was really little :')
Awww CleverMummy2012, she is a little cutie! Thanks for sharing those photos.
I know all pictures would look great if we had good cameras and a keen eye, but I am still fond of the old point and shoot myself, actually in saying that I rarely use it, these days as my mobile's camera is probably better than my old digital camera!
My nephew gave my son his old Apple iphone, its a g3 or a 3g... but it takes good pictures, better than my Google Nexus 4 anyway : )
Clevermummy, excellent pictures! I love the close up! Mobiles can take good picture if the light is good and you a get close enough. What I am not keen on are all the fancy effects that you can just press a button and make your picture look like an old family snap. And it makes everybody's pictures look the same....I know, old fashioned or what!
That's wonderful, and I would not even have thought about taking it below eye level and you're right about the use of black and white.
But there's still something about "having an eye" for what's good, and that you have!!