Horizontal vs. Vertical Photographs

What Are Horizontal and Vertical Photogaphs?
.Horizontal photographs are photographs that are wider than they are tall. Vertical photographs are photographs that are taller than they are wide. Cameras are designed to take one type of photograph, horizontal. This follows the way that human beings see the world. Our eyes are set horizontally across from each other, giving us a view that is wider instead of taller. This allows us to be more aware of our surroundings through peripheral vision. However, in photographs our vision is limited by the edges of the frame so that peripheral vision is eliminated. While this would be dangerous in real life, having no peripheral vision in photography helps the photographer to focus attention on the intended subject by limiting the field of vision. Since a photograph cannot selectively focus once taken (like the brain can selectively focus on a live scene), this limitation of the field of vision is extremely important to photographers. By turning a camera sideways, photographers achieve a vertical photograph in order to further limit the field of vision.

Horizontal photographs are the most common photographic orientation because the camera is designed to take photographs this way. Many photographers do not think to turn the camera sideways to take a vertical image. Horizontal images are roughly the same format as how we see the world and have some distinct properties.

Horizontal images are best used:

•When the subject is horizontal
When your subject is wider than it is tall, a horizontal image compliments the subject.


•To allow the subject to move horizontally
When your subject is moving from one side of the frame to the other, using a horizontal format in conjunction with the rule of thirds visually allows the subject room to continue moving. This will amplify the sense of motion in the image. This is also true of subjects looking to the side. Having open space to the side allows the subject's gaze to continue farther than is possible in a vertical image.


•To convey a sense of space
Horizontal images can be used to suggest a sense of largeness in landscapes. If a small subject is placed in a large field they can also be used to suggest loneliness.

Vertical photographs are less common than horizontal photographs because they require the photographer to take the extra step of turning the camera sideways. Many photographers do not think to turn the camera sideways to take a vertical image. Vertical images are a photographer's way of attempted to imitate the brain's natural selective focus ability.

Vertical images are best used:

•When the subject is vertical
When your subject is taller than it is wide, a vertical image compliments the subject.


•To allow the subject to move vertically
When your subject is moving up or down, using a vertical format in conjunction with the rule of thirds visually allows the subject room to continue moving. This will amplify the sense of motion in the image. This is also true of subjects looking to up or down. Having open space to the top of bottom allows the subject's gaze to continue farther than is possible in a horizontal image. Remember also that when a subject is moving deeper into an image or moving towards the camera that this appears as "up or down" movement when converted into a 2D image. This is why many leading lines images work very well as vertical images.


•To focus attention
Vertical images can be used to focus a viewer's attention on a single subject by removing almost all sense of peripheral vision. This is the theory behind portraits and other single-object compositions and can be combined with either the rule of thirds or centering to intensify impact.

Why Exposure Settings Are Important

Choosing the appropriate pair of exposure settings not only gives you the proper exposure, it also helps determine how much of your picture is in focus (depth of field) and whether moving objects are crisply rendered or blurred. A combination of f/22 for the aperture opening and 1/30 for shutter speed will give you greater depth of field and focus on more objects in the scene, but they'd better be perfectly still or you'll end up with substantial motion blur on the picture.

Which Setting Is Right?
The setting that is correct or takes priority depends a lot on what you're shooting. If the scene involves action, you'll definitely want as fast a shutter speed as you can use to capture all of it, so the shutter speed will be your first determination. To avoid underexposing the film, you'll also need to set a wider aperture to let more light in, or, if you need to shoot with a smaller aperture, you'll need extremely good light. There is slightly more room for fixing exposure errors when shooting digitally, as the exposure can be tweaked a bit in an image-processing program.


The film you use will also influence your choice of shutter speed and apertures. Slow film calls for slow shutter speeds and wide apertures. Faster film allows for faster shutter speeds and smaller apertures. More information on film speed can be found in Chapter 8.
If you're taking a long shot of a mountain scene, you'll care less about the shutter speed and more about the aperture, especially if you want to make sure that as much of the scenery as possible is in focus. In this situation, you can use a smaller aperture and a slower shutter speed.

F-Stops and Image Quality
Another factor determining setting priorities is how the f-stop affects image quality. The largest f-stop for a lens will let in the greatest amount of light, but it will yield the minimum depth of field and the poorest image quality for the lens. Move up a stop, and image quality gets better. Go up to the middle of the f-stops possible on any particular lens, and you'll get the best image quality the lens can deliver. As you continue going up the f-stop scale to the smallest possible aperture for the lens, image quality will deteriorate again, primarily when it comes to sharpness, but not as much as on the other end of the scale. This is less of a factor in higher quality lenses and cameras.

Optical Lens

Optical Lens:
On the front of a camera lens there is a glass lens that focuses light into the camera body and onto the film. Inside the lens body, there are several other optical lenses that further refine the image. These lenses are sometimes called "elements".
Filter Threads:
In front of the first optical lens, there is a small ring with screw threads cut into it. These screw threads allow for filters and other accessories to be easily attached to the front of the lens. Each lens carries a second mm rating that tells the diameter of this front attachment point.
Focusing Ring:
Each lens has a focusing ring. This is a section of the lens that rotates to allow the photographer to focus the image. On automatic cameras, this ring is moved by a small motor within the lens whenever the photographer presses the shutter release button halfway down. These rings are usually marked with guide numbers showing how far away a subject is when focused.
Focal Length Ring:
Each lens that has zoom capability has a focal length ring. This ring allows the photographer to zoom in or zoom out on a subject. Lenses are often described by their focal length. For example, a lens may be called a 70-300mm lens. This indicates that the lens can zoom from 70mm to 300mm. Example of images taken with different focal lengths.
Aperture Ring:
The aperture ring on a lens allows the photographer to control the aperture within the lens. These settings are marked on the lens using F-Stops. On automatic cameras the aperture can only be controlled through the camera body F-Stop settings.
Aperture:
The aperture is an adjustable opening in the lens used to allow light onto the film or digital surface. The size of the aperture is measured by the F-Stop setting. The larger opening of the aperture results in less light needed to expose the image and less depth of field (less in focus). A smaller opening of the aperture results in more light needed to expose the image and more depth of field (more in focus).
Lens Mount:
The lens mount is a metal area that has been machined into a particular shape to fit a specific camera body type. Each camera manufacturer uses a different lens mount design. The lens is attached to the camera at the lens mount ring by lining up a small dot on both the camera body and the lens. The lens is then gently rotated into place. The lens mount also contains contacts that will match up with contacts on the lens ring mount to allow the camera to control the lens.

Capturing A Natural Smile - How To Photograph A Natural Smile

Capturing a natural smile in your photographs can be difficult. All too often people grimace or give a forced smile when asked to smile for the camera. This is a natural reaction when asked to imitate what is normally a spontaneous emotional reaction. Each person's natural smile is slightly different but most have a few common features.

Relaxed Face - Most natural smiles are accompanied by a relaxed face everywhere but the mouth and the very corner of the eyes. A face that has furrowed eyebrows or drawn in cheeks triggers instinctual programming that tells us this is not a happy smile.

Slight Eye Involvement - A natural smile almost always involves a very slight narrowing of the eyes and tiny crinkles at the outside corners of the eyes. This is due to the smile pushing the cheeks up and not due to tension in the eyes. Some people will naturally widen their eyes just a bit to compensate for the reduced visual range from the pushed up cheeks.

Head Movement - Many people will instinctively tilt their heads slightly (either front to back or to the side) when producing a genuine smile. While a slight head tilt can enhance the look of a smile in a photo, be aware of your timing so that you do not wind up with a blurred face due to motion just as you trip the shutter.

Now that you know what to look for in a smile, let's find out how to capture that smile.

As you can see in this example photo, the smile is forced. As we discussed in step one, this smile has furrowed brows, too narrow eyes, and tension in the face. This type of smile, to some degree, is what you generally get when you first ask a subject to smile. This is rarely deliberate. Because a smile is an emotional event it can be difficult for your subject to imitate that emotion on cue. This is especially true of children. As people age they generally become more aware of their face and are better able to approximate expressions without the backing emotion.

The dilemma is that if you ask them to smile you get this forced caricature of a smile but if you don't' ask them to smile you get a depressed looking photograph. To get past this you need to put your subject at ease. A nervous subject will rarely produce a genuine smile. How you get your subject to relax will vary from person to person but in general you should be aware of what is making the subject nervous. Are they constantly straightening a sleeve that they think isn't sitting right? Are they rubbing their tongue across their teeth as though they are worried about how white their teeth are? Are they worried at glare on their glasses? By paying attention to your subject's mannerisms as they enter the studio you can get vital clues as to what is making them nervous so you can help calm their nerves.

 When photographing people, the natural instinct when faced with a forced smile is all too often to tell the subject, "no, smile right." This just confuses your subject. For adults it will annoy them greatly in most cases and with children they will be completely confused. This is because people do not realize they are giving a forced smile. The result when told to "smile right" or some version of that instruction, is to next give a confused mix of facial features. Brows are furrowed as the subject concentrates on trying to be natural, the lips do not spread widely, and the overall look is one of confusion or concern.

As photographers we need to be very careful in our instructions to our subjects. Just as we often have to pose them in ways that seem unnatural to get a good portrait, we often have to trick them into smiling naturally in an unnatural situation. Instead of telling them they are doing something wrong, offer praise and say something funny before the next shot. As we discussed in step 2, relaxing the subject is very important.

Now that we understand the smile and the reasons for "bad" smiles in portraits, we can capture that "perfect" smile. Its time to put everything we've learned together.

1. Put Your Subject At Ease - A nervous subject will never give you the smile you need to capture. Pay attention to their mannerisms and find the best way to put each individual at ease.

2. Don't Confuse The Subject - Even the most cooperative subject will not produce a wonderful smile if they are confused. Try to avoid telling them they are smiling "wrong" and instead work to make the subject happy. If you must tell them specifics try to ask them in a positive manner. For example, "Can you widen your eyes just a touch?" instead of "Don't squint like that."

3. Trick Them If You Need To - Sometimes the only way to get a beautiful natural smile is to trick the subject. Either snap the photo as they relax their face from a forced smile or get them to laugh. With children its easy to get them to laugh with silly props or by having them say crazy things instead of "smile." With adults a self-depreciating joke often works. Sometimes though, the best way to get a true smile from a subject is to smile yourself. Like yawns, smiles can be contagious.

What Causes Red Eye in Photographs

What causes red eye in photographs is a very common question. What is Red Eye
There are probably millions of family albums with red eye in the photographs. Red eye is a term commonly referring to a bright red pupil in photographs. The common reason given for this is that the light reflected off blood vessels in the back of the eye. More accurately, the light is reflect so that you are seeing the light illuminating the back of the retina.

Causes of Red Eye
Red eye occurs when light enters the eye at almost level with the eye. Because light reflects at an angle equal and opposite to its entry (in layman's terms, it makes a "V" shape) if bright light (such as from a flash) enters the eye at almost no angle it will be reflected back, or visible to, the camera. This most often happens when the pupil of the eye is dilated and gives the light more room to enter and exit the eye.

Red Eye is Most Likely to Occur in These Situations
Built-in camera flash
Pupils dilated
Camera lens is level with the eye

Preventing Red Eye
Preventing red eye is not as difficult as you might think. To prevent red eye you just have to alter the angle the light enters/exits the eye or change the harshness of the light.

Ways to Prevent Red Eye
Use a flash with a tilt head
Use a reflector to add light
Use a diffuser on your flash
Shoot from a slightly higher or lower position than your subject's eyes

Getting the Most Out of Your Point and Shoot Camera

You don't have to have a fancy camera to take great photographs. Are there some limitations as to what a point and shoot camera can do? Sure, but that doesn't mean it can't take great images. You simply have to know your camera's capabilities and apply solid photography techniques. Here are some great tips on how to get the most out of your point and shoot camera.

When you've finished taking a look at our tips, be sure to use the link at the bottom of this page to share your point and shoot camera secrets and tips to great images!

How To Hold A Camera

A big part of avoiding camera shake is learning to hold your camera. This will vary slightly based on the type of camera.


SLR Type Camera
•Pull your elbows in close to your body
•Use your left hand to support the camera lens and your right hand on the molded grip
•Stand as stable as possible. Usually this is with your feet about shoulder width apart and knees relaxed. If you lock your knees you will begin to sway.
•Lean against a solid object if possible.
•Slowly press the shutter release and do not move afterward until you have completed an inhale and exhale of breath. This helps prevent moving the camera downward as you push the shutter release.

Pocket Cameras and Point & Shoot Cameras

•When using an LCD screen to compose and image you have to hold the camera away from your body a bit. Support your elbows if possible.
•Stand as stable as possible. Usually this is with your feet about shoulder width apart and knees relaxed. If you lock your knees you will begin to sway.
•Lean against a solid object if possible.
•Slowly press the shutter release and do not move afterward until you have completed an inhale and exhale of breath. This helps prevent moving the camera downward as you push the shutter release.