Print it on Canvas News

Back in the days of 35mm film cameras and sending your pictures off to the chemist or the photo labs to be developed, you knew that what you got back was what you’d taken through the camera lens. The camera, as they say, never lies.

These days however with digital cameras, a multitude of camera effects and of course the availability of photo editing software such as PhotoShop, the camera doesn’t just lie, it completely makes up what you want it to.

You can take a photo of your subject against a white wall, drop them into any background or setting that you want and create it so that it looks real. You can correct any errors with the picture, such as poor lighting and intrusive objects, plus you can even correct any errors with your subject. For example you could get rid of spots, red-eye, whiten their teeth or even reduce their weight.

The power of image manipulation software is incredible, but is it real photography?

The truth is yes. You don’t think those recent photos that have adorned OK magazine from Wayne and Colleen’s wedding didn’t go unedited do you? She doesn’t look that good without some airbrush and clone tool work from PhotoShop. If you want your photos to look as good as the professionals, especially if you’re looking to get them printed on canvas, you’ll want to find yourself some image manipulation software and give yourself a PhotoShop makeover.

It’s not cheating; it’s what the professionals do!

In the digital age finding your photographs shouldn’t be a problem. It’s not like you’re having to deal with masses of negative strips like we used to have to organise when we used 35mm film cameras. In those days you’d need to keep them safe in wallets and make sure they didn’t get dusty or creased, because if they did you wouldn’t be printing any more photos from them!

No, today we just need to save our images to a computer or a storage device and we can store tens of thousands of photographs as easy as we’d save files on the Internet. Then they’re ready for you whenever you need them to print as pictures, upload to websites or print on canvas.

However, you need to be careful with your digital pictures because you won’t have any negatives to rescue you, should you happen to lose the file or delete it accidentally. Therefore you should copy your images and keep backups, because if your computer crashes and isn’t recoverable, can you afford to lose the images it contains?

You can use an external storage drive, a USB flash drive, or even upload your photos to Flickr or some other such file saving website. The more copies you have of your pictures, the safer they’ll be.

Imagine if the worst happened right now, and you lost every photo on your PC; have you made backups?

When looking to take great photos that will look good printed on canvas you’ll need to ensure that you do everything possible to get the best shot, and the clearest possible image. As canvas prints can be very large in size, any blemish or imperfection in the picture will be very obvious in the final canvas print.

Therefore, one tip you should take heed of when taking your pictures is to use a tripod as much as you can. This might seem obvious, but many photographers try to ignore their tripods and work without them. They take too much time to setup, they’re too cumbersome, and they think they don’t need one. Particularly with today’s digital cameras having image stabilizing technology, the tripod isn’t required anymore.

That’s just not true however, the tripod is just as important now as it ever was. Using image stabilizing doesn’t allow you reduce the shutter speed enough for adding any creativity to your photographs, or for taking pictures in lower light conditions.

For example, you could reduce your shutter speed down to 1/15 or 1/30 a second, which would allow you to create great burred effects for action photography. This isn’t possible without a tripod, thus using the tripod could be the difference between a good photo and a great photo.

One thing many people don’t realise when they come to have their pictures printed, whether that be on paper on printed on canvas, is that the resolution is important to the outcome of the print. Many digital cameras these days allow you to choose the quality of the image that you’re saving, offering smaller file sizes and lower resolutions in order to save space and fit more pictures on the SD card. The downside to this is that the quality, or resolution, of the smaller files is too poor to print.

This means that when they are printed they come out fuzzy, grainy and blurry.

Cameras take pictures this low quality because they’re fine for use on the Internet, such as on Facebook or MySpace. The Internet displays images at the resolution 72 dpi (dots per inch) which is fine when the pictures appear on your computer screen. However 72 dpi is far too low a resolution to be printed. Instead, when printing an image you’ll require a resolution of a minimum of 300 dpi.

If you were buying images from a photographer’s website you would generally pay more for the higher resolution versions. Fore example the 72 dpi version may be the cheapest because it’s only useful for website work, where a 300 dpi or higher resolution image would cost more as it can be printed.

With this in mind ensure that if you’re looking to take a photo with a view to printing it on canvas, or on paper, that you choose the highest quality setting on your digital camera and use the highest resolution available. The higher the resolution, the better quality the photograph.

For most people, and especially women, your wedding day is the most important day of your life. You want it to be perfect. Every detail has to be just right and everything has to go off without a hitch (despite of course the ‘hitch’ you’re there for!).

However it can also be very stressful, and many things can go wrong. Above all else though, the wedding photographer isn’t something you want to go wrong. The pictures from your wedding are what last, capturing those enduring memories of your special day. They’ll stay with you for what should be a long and successful marriage, so you’ll want to make sure you have the best photographs you can.

In order to do this, and have wedding photos that will look good enough to be printed on canvas, you’ll need to make sure you choose the right wedding photographer. Make sure you see their portfolio first, and get an accurate quote on the prices they charge so that you know how many photos you’ll get and what sort of album you’ll be presented with.

Then you should consult with the people that matter, such as the bride and groom’s parents, on what sort of photos they’ll want. Be sure not take too much input though as it’s your day, and the photographer is the expert.

When you come to choose a photograph for printing on canvas you should pick one that shows the happy couple in close up, as the canvas texture always look great on skin tones.

Above all, enjoy the day. If you’re stressed and worrying about things, it will show in the pictures.

Taking photos of people outside is a great way of combining nature with portrait shots, and often brings the best out of your subjects. However when lighting your portrait photos outside you should rely on natural sunlight to light your pictures, even Mother Nature needs a helping hand sometimes. When you rely on sunlight you’ll often get light that is too harsh, or too flat, or creates dark areas on the subject’s face. To rectify this you should use something called a ‘fill flash’, or the ‘mode’ setting as it is sometimes known on digital cameras.

This will ensure that you don’t lose any of the details on your subject’s face.

The Fill Flash will create a subtle flash that throws a little light onto your subject’s face. It’s often used by professional wedding photographers to ensure that the bride and groom get the best possible pictures of their special day; particularly when faced by the strong sunlight every bride wants for her wedding day.

The Fill Flash on a digital camera takes a reading of the amount of light in the background of your image, and adjusts the level of the flash to compensate. This ensures that you’re not left with a strong backlight causing a dark effect on your subject’s face, silhouetting your subject.

Be sure not to stand too fare away from your subject though as the effective range of the flash is usually no more than 10 feet.

With the Fill Flash you can experiment using different natural lighting techniques. For example, you could position your subject with the sun behind them, or to the side of them, creating what is often known as ‘rim lighting’. This creates a slight halo effect behind them, highlighting their outline.

When you’re composing your photos, one of the things you’ll need to decide on is just what parts of the picture do you want to be in focus. For example, you might want your subject to be in sharp focus at the front of the frame, while having the background out of focus. This will draw attention to your subject.

Alternatively you might want your entire photo to be in focus. You can change the focus of the photograph with the aperture of the camera, to alter the depth of field.

If you’re photographing a landscape shot you’ll want the entire picture in focus.

You can increase the depth of field by reducing the aperture, allowing you to get more of the shot in focus. If however you increase the focal length you’ll have a small depth of field, which will mean you will only have one small part of your composition in focus, for example your subject.

A wide-angle lens has a very high depth of field, allowing you to have objects very close to the camera in focus, and objects as far away as the horizon.

One of the things you’ll need to decide when you want to take up photography as a hobby is whether to opt for a classic 35ml camera or to go for a new digital camera. Purists will say that nothing beats film; in much the same way they vinyl lovers will say they’re better than CDs.

There is a lot to be said for 35ml film. It’s the way photography was supposed to be, with pictures crafted as an art form. However to take it seriously you’ll need your own darkroom, which for developing the film itself has to be completely dark. Then you’ll need all of the chemicals, and the projector. It’s a very expensive, time consuming hobby.

Of course you could always have your films developed in a shop, or by sending them away. But when you do that you’re putting your trust in someone else and you have no control over the outcome.

Then the film itself isn’t cheap. Every picture you take costs you to develop. Whereas with a digital camera you can take as many photos as you want without any extra cost. You don’t need to pay to develop any film, because there isn’t any, and the camera’s themselves, with the aid of SD cards, can store hundreds of photos.

Digital cameras are easier to use, and the results are instant. When you use a film camera you have to wait to get the pictures back. With a digital camera you can see the photos straight away, so you know if you have the shot you want or not.

Also with a digital camera you can choose which photos you want to print, you don’t have to get them all developed.

If you’re looking to get into photography for the first time, you’re probably better off with a digital camera rather than a 35ml film camera.

Taking photos is fun and shouldn’t be something that you take too seriously, but by the same token you don’t want to waste time snapping away if you’re going to get bad results back. You want your pictures to be of a high standard, pictures that you’ll be proud to show your friends and family. Pictures that may even be good enough to be printed on canvas.

With that in mind there are a few things you should avoid when taking photos to make sure you don’t fall into any common pitfalls.

1. Don’t stand your subjects in front a strong light source
   A common problem with many people’s photos is that they position their subjects in front of a strong light source, such as a window or the sun. This creates backlight, and means that the subject of the photos is too dark. This results in very little details being visible on the subject’s face.
2. Don’t turn your camera off and put it away at social gatherings
   A good photographer always has their camera with them. If your camera is switched off and has the lens cap on, you’re not ready to capture those moments of magic that happen when your friends and family get together. Be sure to have your camera with you, to hand, and ready to snap at a second’s notice or you’ll miss the best moments.
3. Don’t hesitate when taking photos
   Taking pictures should be second nature. If you take too long and try to compose the perfect shot you’ll miss the best moments. Take more pictures not less, particularly if you have a digital camera. You can always delete them later.

As the human face is so interesting, so fascinating, it’s obvious then that close up portraits of faces make for some of the best photography. Taking a good quality close up portrait means to photograph your subject from their shoulders upwards, or closer. Therefore you are framing your subject around the face, so that the face takes up the majority of picture.

This is the best sort of framing to fully capture the range of expressions available on your subject. When photographing a close up portrait shot you need to ensure that your lighting is right for your subject. For example, you wish to accentuate the character in a face and highlight curves and wrinkles then you have your subject lit from the side or from above.

If however you want to take a more flattering photograph you would light your subject with diffused light and eliminate any shadows. For outdoor close up portraits a cloudy day would be best to avoid any harsh lighting.

Your photos will look better as well of your subject is lighter than your background so that they dominate the final image. It is best to use a wide aperture and make the subject in sharp focus while the background is slightly out of focus. Using a 90mm or higher telephoto lens will allow you to take the emphasis off your subjects nose by taking the picture from further away; therefore their nose will not appear to be closer to the camera.