Professional Styles and Techniques in the Art of Digital Wedding Photography

When people get sentimental, they usually flip albums and look at the pictures that depict the things that happened in their lives. These pictures are not simply pieces of colored papers with images for they can trigger deeply-seated emotions. Emotions vary depending on the memories attached to these images seen and preserved.

One of the moments that most people would really love to preserve is the tick of events on their wedding day.

For this reason, people even decide to hire professional photographers to capture the important moments of their lives. However, these photographers may not always advise the client to strike a pose. They are expected to wait patiently to be able to catch memorable portraits. Most photographers that are employed for weddings have assistants so that they can maximize their strategy in creating an album that will not regrettable.

What if you would also want to take pictures of a friend’s wedding?

Here are a few basic techniques and styles for anyone who wants to capture the said event using a digital camera:

1. If you want to take a picture of a couple or any intended target, make sure that the background is good and the environment is not so crowded.
2. If there is a nice background but it is hard to focus on the couple, you may shoot them from shoulder up.
3. If some of the guests are wearing glasses, they can be advised to stand tilt their heads a little down or sideways to avoid the glaring effect that normally appears when the flash is used.
4. If there is a couple or a group that you wish to include in the picture, you should zoom in or out of the picture.
5. You must not shoot a couple or any guest against the light so that dark images will not appear
6. Candid shots are also dramatic. These portraits reveal more than the quality of the picture itself. In fact, many professionals do this to capture intimate and memorable moments.
7. You should be alert at all times since you can seldom ask individuals to pose
again for you.
8. Your digital camera should be equipped with appropriate memory cards or sticks to ensure that no great moment is missed.

In other words, you have to have an extra memory card especially when you want more moments to preserve. The following suggestions should be considered before buying a memory card:

a. for 3 mega pixels – a 256 MB memory card
b. for 4 mega pixels – a 512 MB memory card
c. for 6 mega pixels – 1 gigabyte memory card

9. You are not advised to use low resolutions if the images will be displayed and
hung later.

Just always remember that the higher the resolution utilized, the larger the size of prints that can be made.

10. Keep a copy of your best works so you can use and reuse the techniques that
made your viewers smile and appreciate your creation more.

You can do this by saving albums on your personal computer to free up the space in your memory card. You may also use other software to enhance the quality of the prints to be made.

Photography is truly a wonderful art. Wedding is a wonderful event. The union of these things will trigger emotions and memories in the long run more so if images are captured and preserved well. They all depend on your camera and your love for this art and the couple.

How many mega pixels do I need on a digital camera

One of the confusing things in choosing a digital camera is deciding how many mega-pixels you should look for. The answer depends on what you plan on doing with the finished pictures.

First, you need to understand what a pixel is. In terms of digital prints, a pixel simply means a dot of color that makes up the image. A mega-pixel is equal to one million pixels. The more mega-pixels a camera has, the greater the amount of information it records.

The easiest way to decide what to look for is to know what size prints you are likely to print from your camera. A one mega-pixel camera is fine for those who don’t plan on printing photos but rather just post them on the internet. A small print, say 4 x 6, will print acceptably from this camera.

A 2 mega-pixel camera will enable you to produce good quality 5 x 7 prints and fair quality 8 x 10 prints. When you reach 4 mega-pixels you can print out excellent quality 8 x 10 prints and acceptable 11 x 17 prints and a 5 mega pixel camera will allow you to print out high quality 11 x 17 prints.

Most families find a camera in the 3.2 Mega-pixel range to be the best choice. The quality of both 5 x & and 8 X 10 prints is very good yet the files on your computer are not so large you need worry about not having enough space.

Any camera over 5 mega-pixels is unnecessary for all but professionals in photography; even then, only those who have need for poster-size prints find that many mega-pixels worth the money. Most freelance photographers find 4 or 5 mega-pixels to be sufficient for excellent-quality prints.

The choice is yours. Look to what you plan on doing with your photos and then decide. In most cases spending the money for increased optical zoom and lower mega-pixels is the best choice.

How to use focus modes on digital cameras

While some of the least expensive digital cameras have only automatic focus, meaning the camera does all the work on bringing your subject into the best possible focus, most SLR digitals offer three different focus modes: manual, single auto focus and continuous auto focus. All three of these will be addressed here.
With manual focus, the camera stays out of the focus equation and you, the photographer, make all the decisions regarding this. This is done by setting different buttons or actually using an attached focusing ring that rotates on the camera lens. For those who like to have complete creative control of the finished product, this is the best focus mode.
In single auto focus mode, the camera automatically focuses when you press the shutter button either all the way down to shoot a photo or half way down to lock the focus. This mode is useful when shooting static objects.
In continuous auto focus the camera continuously focuses on the objects in the photo. In this mode the camera continuously corrects the focus as the objects distance from the camera changes. This mode is useful when you shoot photos of moving objects such as a race car during a race or airplanes during an air show. You can hold the shutter button half way down and continuously move the camera to follow the object. The camera will continuously keep the object in focus.
Like any other feature automatic and manual focus modes have their pros and cons. The first step to using them to your advantage is to understand how they work and what they were designed for. The next step is to experiment shoot photos using different focus modes and different types of objects and see how the camera behaves. Once you have done that you will be ready to instinctively use the best focus mode for each photo situation.

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