Photos are one of your best ways of remembering your Winter Music Conference experience. Not everyone is a pro photographer, but here are a few quick guidelines for taking good pictures and some awareness notes for posing.
Taking photos:
The Rule of Thirds:
When you look through your camera, split the view-finder up into an imaginary tic-tac-toe board, and put the most interesting elements of the shot at the four places where the lines intersect. This is the single most basic rule of photography.
Tall vs. Wide Shots:
If the primary object you are taking a photo of is tall, tip the camera so you are taking a tall shot. If the primary focus is on something wide, take a wide shot. I know it sounds like common sense, but tons of people only take horizontal shots, because it’s easier to hold the camera that way. If you are taking a picture of one person or two people together, chances are your best photo will be a vertical one.
Dark vs. Light:
Most pictures from point-and-shoot cameras will look better during the daytime or under bright lights. Keep this in mind if you want a good group shot of you and your friends. Flashes and focal lengths get confused in dark places, especially in clubs with dynamic lighting. On some cameras, there is a sync or delayed flash; they can be a little finicky, but if you get the settings right, it’s usually your best option for getting a good picture of a DJ in the dark. If you take pictures with the wrong settings, especially in the dark, they end up blurred or out of focus.
Three types of photos: close-up, medium, and long-range
If you try to take some of each of these photos, you’ll have a better variation in your images of your trip. Close-up is just someone’s face, a picture of a sticker, or a picture of a needle on a record. Medium shots are pictures of a person, a small group of people, a store-front, or a DJ setup. Photos of friends dancing are hit and miss depending on when the shutter clicks, but it’s better to try and fail then to not try at all. Long-range shots are of a crowd in front of an entire stage, a city horizon, or the view from on top of a hotel. Most shots tend to be medium distance, but be sure to try to get a few close and a few far ones too.
When people ask you to take photos of them:
Get them set up, hold the camera properly (either for a wide or tall shot), put their eyeballs in the correct place for the Rule of Thirds, and then count down from three for them before you push the shutter button. The composition will be good, and they will know when to smile.
Posing
People will often fall into patterns of posing over time due to nerves or subconscious habits. Here are a few that aren’t necessarily bad or to be avoided, but certainly to be aware of.
Common posing habits:
Pointing – so many billions of pictures of people either pointing at each other, at themselves, or at the camera.
Hand gestures – peace signs, rock star signs, devil horns, bunny ears, middle fingers. Ask yourself if that’s how you want to be remembered before making hand gestures in every photo taken of you.
The surprised face – cameras aren’t really that surprising.
The duck face/lips – some people are into this (girls); some aren’t (boys).
Smiling with no teeth – often very unnatural looking. If you’re straining to keep your teeth covered, you probably look better relaxing.
Smiling for too long before the picture is taken – looks very strained and is uncomfortable to sit there with a big smile for more than 10 seconds or so.
Licking things – most often people licking other people’s faces or their ears, or pretending to lick boobs.
The ugly face – making yourself looking intentionally weird
Sticking your tongue out – either straight out or sideways
Winking, blinking, or scrunching up one side of your face – this tends to be a big nervous habit for some people, and they end up with a lot of lopsided pictures of themselves
To have the best pictures of yourself, relax, be natural, and smile. It sounds simple, but if you find that you are unintentionally doing any of the above, nix those habits before WMC hits!
Remembering Your WMC: Taking Pictures and Posing
Photos are one of your best ways of remembering your Winter Music Conference experience. Not everyone is a pro photographer, but here are a few quick guidelines for taking good pictures and some awareness notes for posing.
Taking photos:
The Rule of Thirds:
When you look through your camera, split the view-finder up into an imaginary tic-tac-toe board, and put the most interesting elements of the shot at the four places where the lines intersect. This is the single most basic rule of photography.
Tall vs. Wide Shots:
If the primary object you are taking a photo of is tall, tip the camera so you are taking a tall shot. If the primary focus is on something wide, take a wide shot. I know it sounds like common sense, but tons of people only take horizontal shots, because it’s easier to hold the camera that way. If you are taking a picture of one person or two people together, chances are your best photo will be a vertical one.
Dark vs. Light:
Most pictures from point-and-shoot cameras will look better during the daytime or under bright lights. Keep this in mind if you want a good group shot of you and your friends. Flashes and focal lengths get confused in dark places, especially in clubs with dynamic lighting. On some cameras, there is a sync or delayed flash; they can be a little finicky, but if you get the settings right, it’s usually your best option for getting a good picture of a DJ in the dark. If you take pictures with the wrong settings, especially in the dark, they end up blurred or out of focus.
Three types of photos: close-up, medium, and long-range
If you try to take some of each of these photos, you’ll have a better variation in your images of your trip. Close-up is just someone’s face, a picture of a sticker, or a picture of a needle on a record. Medium shots are pictures of a person, a small group of people, a store-front, or a DJ setup. Photos of friends dancing are hit and miss depending on when the shutter clicks, but it’s better to try and fail then to not try at all. Long-range shots are of a crowd in front of an entire stage, a city horizon, or the view from on top of a hotel. Most shots tend to be medium distance, but be sure to try to get a few close and a few far ones too.
When people ask you to take photos of them:
Get them set up, hold the camera properly (either for a wide or tall shot), put their eyeballs in the correct place for the Rule of Thirds, and then count down from three for them before you push the shutter button. The composition will be good, and they will know when to smile.
Posing
People will often fall into patterns of posing over time due to nerves or subconscious habits. Here are a few that aren’t necessarily bad or to be avoided, but certainly to be aware of.
Common posing habits:
Pointing – so many billions of pictures of people either pointing at each other, at themselves, or at the camera.
Hand gestures – peace signs, rock star signs, devil horns, bunny ears, middle fingers. Ask yourself if that’s how you want to be remembered before making hand gestures in every photo taken of you.
The surprised face – cameras aren’t really that surprising.
The duck face/lips – some people are into this (girls); some aren’t (boys).
Smiling with no teeth – often very unnatural looking. If you’re straining to keep your teeth covered, you probably look better relaxing.
Smiling for too long before the picture is taken – looks very strained and is uncomfortable to sit there with a big smile for more than 10 seconds or so.
Licking things – most often people licking other people’s faces or their ears, or pretending to lick boobs.
The ugly face – making yourself looking intentionally weird
Sticking your tongue out – either straight out or sideways
Winking, blinking, or scrunching up one side of your face – this tends to be a big nervous habit for some people, and they end up with a lot of lopsided pictures of themselves
To have the best pictures of yourself, relax, be natural, and smile. It sounds simple, but if you find that you are unintentionally doing any of the above, nix those habits before WMC hits!