Calendar Photos

[Joy Williams]

OK, here's a question for all you pros out there. Since it is time to start getting good shots for the DK Calendars, what tips can you offer for getting good portraits for the calendars? Any advice at all would be welcome!!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

This is a great question, Joy. When I started to go through my pictures I found that almost all of them had been cropped. I have a habit of taking my pictures knowing that I can later crop them, so I'm not paying particular attention to what's around. That's a real problem for me now....I can't submit any of my cropped photos. I'd love tips on how people are getting their great shots without the benefits of the editing.

[Adina P]

If it's only slightly cropped, leaving the photo large enough otherwise, it's okay. It's when the cropping reduces the size of the image enough (in any direction) that it just won't look right on a large calendar page that it is a problem. Unlike on CSI, in real-life, unfortunately, you can't recreate the missing pixels.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

That's great news, Adina! Thanks for the clarification.

[Diane Margetts]

Adina
Maybe this isn't the right place to ask this, but can you give the dimensions of photo size you need for the calendar? We could then maybe crop to that size or even allow a bit of overage for you to work with . . .

[Adina P]

The info is in the list of photo requirements.

[LG & Sadie]

Oh Adina that's great news for me too! I am crazy with the crop feature! I was bummed thinking I couldn't use any of the existing pics I have with great landscapes~

[F, Calla & Luca]

Good point, many of my recent photos are cropped.

[Richard Crowe]

I have a few tips...

Ensure that your doodle or doodles fill most of the frame. After-all, the doodles are the center of interest for your calendar picture, not your house or lawn. Occasionally, this rule can be broken a bit when the surrounding area makes the image interesting; as in the jacaranda surrounding Holly on the lawn in the below image.

When shooting your doodle, especially in full face portraits, try to increase the image size by zooming in while still staying at a bit of a distance. This will prevent the natural distortion caused by using a very short focal length (wide angle lens) close to the doodles face which results in you doodle looking like its nose is the size of a dinner plate and its snout looking as long as an aligator. This tip is good for people shots also.

When you are framing your shot try to look at the background and foreground as well as the doodle itself so that you don't have distracting elements such as portions of people in the frame and trees growing directly out of the doodle's head.

Shoot lots and lots of pictures. That is the greatest thing about digital photography. Very few of us could afford to be as reckless in the numbers of pictures we took when each photo cost money. However now, we have the luxury of shooting as many images as we have energy to shoot. We can just delete the images we don't like.

Shots can either be planned or spontaneous. However, unless you have a camera ready to use, you will often miss the spontaneous shots. My wife is a fastidious housekeeper and hates anything out of place. However, even she agrees that the place for my camera is out where I can get at it quickly rather than packed away in a case.

As an example, one afternoon I walked out to my fenced lawn and saw Holly laying in a carpet of fallen jacaranda blossoms. I ran back in the house, grabbed my camera and turned it on. Although, I shoot in many modes, I will always leave my camera in the P or programmed mode so when I pick it up it will be ready to shoot at a moments notice. I leave the hotshoe flash attached so that I can either shoot indoors or use fill-flash outdoors. If I didn't have the camera handy, I would not have been able to get this shot of Holly.



Shoot in the landscape position rather than in the portrait position. Calendars will use landscape (horizontal) images. This shot of Holly and the jacaranda, although a nice image in itself is not good for calendar use since it has been framed in the portrait of vertical configuration.



Shoot in the higest quality your camera allows and always save the originals of your images. Never work on them by editing. Always edit copies of those images. If your equipment and editing capability allows you to shoot RAW, that would be the best way to shoot. However, that is an entirely new subject.

Shutter speed... When shooting any action picture, your shutter speed needs to be high enough to stop the action. When you are shooting with a totally automatic camera, this is difficult to control. However if your camera has some capability for adjustments, read your manual and learn how to achieve a high shutter speed. The higher shutter speed will prevent the action from being blurred.

[Joy Williams]

Thanks Richard. And these are beautiful shots of Holly with the jacaranda!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

These are great tips...thanks!

[F, Calla & Luca]

Yes, thanks. You are always so generous with your advice. Love the pictures of Holly and the jacaranda.

[Vicky & Cassidy]

Stunning shots! I attended nursery school in Australia, and every November they would host a luncheon for the mums on tables set out in the fallen (and falling) Jacaranda blossoms. Thank-you for bringing back such a nice memory....