Photography Tips and Tricks

• How do I get an out of focus background in my photo with my kit lens? 

• You can further the distance between your subject and the background. The farther the background is, the more out of focus it will be. Or if you have a telephoto lens, like an 18-135, or 200mm lens, you can zoom all the way in for compression, which will result in a shallower depth of field.

• How do I take a longer than 30 second exposure without a shutter release cable?

• You can take a rubber band and a wine bottle cork and wrap the rubber band vertically around the camera grip and place the cork under the rubber band on top of the shutter button, then, press it down and leave it there until you're ready. 

• I get a lot of lens flare in my pictures, and I don't have a lens hood?

• You can sometimes use your hand or hat to shade out the sun. This is what I do most of the time in my photo's.  Sometimes, you want to include lens flare depending on the situation.

• I want to light up my subjects entire face, but I don't have a reflector?

• You can do a couple of things; You can take your subject to a white wall, which will reflect light very nicely on to their face, or you can take them somewhere shady, like under a tree, but be careful, you don't want any light dappling your subjects face, making a very chaotic portrait. 

• I want to go out in rain with my camera, but I don't have any protective cover?

• You can use a produce bag from places like Safeway, King Soopers, Wal-Mart or Vitamin Cottage. You'll probably want to use it on LiveView mode so it's easier to expose and focus. Looking into the viewfinder through plastic can be really difficult. 

• I want to take macro shots up close but can get close enough, and I can't afford a macro lens?

• What you can do, is to take a 50mm lens, or kit lens and zoom it out to 50mm, and flip it around, and hold the end of the lens to the body. Now look through the viewfinder. This is called reverse lens macro, and is the most affordable way of doing extreme macro photography. You can't do this in wet conditions, as your lens contacts are exposed. The smaller the focal length the closer you'll get, so if you zoom it out to 18mm, you'll get even closer, but often you get to close at this range.

More to come!

If you have any questions that you're wondering about, you can post them in the comment box and I will try to answer them as best I can.

{ SHORTY }