Tuesday Tip

Strategic Cropping

We've all seen those pictures that need someone or something cut out, right? Well, although cropping for that reason is certainly beneficial, there are a few other reasons you may want to consider doing a little choppity chop to your pictures ...

• Zoom in, baby! Can't get close enough? Easy fix. Crop your image for a closer shot. Oftentimes, I snap a photo that's further away in order to give me two options- a close up or distant image. Remember that you can always zoom in by cropping the image, but you can never zoom out. Better safe than ... well, you know. Here is an example of an image of Hunter that I cropped for a closer look: 

• Focus on the subject. Occasionally, you may have an image with a lot of surrounding distractions. To hone in on your subject, consider cropping it to eliminate what you don't want in the photograph. Challenge yourself to push your "cropping" limits! Below is an image of Landon getting reading on his wedding day. The original image had a lot going on in the background. To bring the attention on what I wanted to capture from the photo (him buttoning his shirt), I cropped it so that even his eyes wouldn't be a distraction. This is a great way to get a nice detail shot.

• Get artistic. Try cropping your image at an angle. An earlier Tuesday Tip that I posted suggested trying new angles. Well, if you didn't get the angle you wanted while snapping the shot, try cropping it at an angle. When editing a photo, I often see the image in a completely new and different way. Giving yourself the freedom to play around with artistic angles can make editing so much more fun! Here is an engagement photo of Matthew and Hillary that I cropped at an angle, which I think makes the image much more appealing.

Thanks for stopping by, happy shooting... and cropping!  ;)

Hunter | McDonough, Ga SENIOR Photographer

A friend of mine, Sherri, asked me to photograph her son months ago. As soon as the school year became a smooth routine and the weather cooled off we set our date. 

I've known Hunter for a few years now and I must say- he's a keeper! Hunter is just an all around genuine guy. Not only is he a little hottie (cough*) but he also has a huge heart. Hunter is one of those guys that you only hear positive things about. If that doesn't insinuate that he's going to be successful I don't know what does.

In addition to photographing Hunter, I also got a few shots of him with his mom and brother. Sherri, thank you for the opportunity to photograph your beautiful family. All three of you are just darn good looking. I really did enjoy our time together (Oh, and thanks again for dinner).

Hunter, good luck this year with wrestling. I look forward to seeing you on the mat and watching you venture off into the real world. I know you're going to do great things :) 

And now for the photos...

And a few of the rest of the family...

Tuesday Tip

This week's tip is... Focus on the eyes!

People have asked me how I get the subjects' eyes so sharp in my images. The answer is simple: Focus on the eyes. If you are shooting with your camera set on auto-focus, make sure when you're looking through your view finder that you see the little red light show up on at least one of the eyes. You may have to move your camera and try different angles until you see that it has picked up on one of the eyes its self. This leads me to another challenge...


If you feel comfortable (because you have read your manual not one, not two, but at LEAST three times), I *highly* encourage you to practice choosing your focal point manually. By manipulating your focal point you can manually place the focal point on the pupil of the subject's eye. By doing this you are much more likely to get the focal point you want and the sharpness you desire. 


I anticipate a few questions could arise from this tip so I'm going to try and nip those before you even have to ask :) 


1. What setting should I have my camera set on to adjust my focal point manually? Although 'Program' (P for Canon) is not the only setting that will allow you to do this, it's the one I recommend. Until I learn how to shoot 100% in manual, I'm sticking with P. I'm one of those who sticks with what works. It works so I'm sticking.


2. Whose eyes do I focus on if there is more than one person in the picture? It depends. (Oh why did I give myself such a complicated question, haha) If I want one person to be the focal point of the image, obviously I choose that person's eyes. However, if I want a group of people to be in focus I usually just switch to auto-focus and allow my camera to do the thinking for me. While in auto-focus I do make sure my camera picks up on someone's eye. Sometimes if I have two people side-by-side I'll just choose one of their eye's, randomly. If they aren't side-by-side (different depths-of-field) then I don't choose one over the other because I don't want one person to be in focus while the other is blurred. Wow, I hope that makes sense. 


3. Do you always choose the eye as your focal point with taking portraits? Yes! :)


4. How did you figure that out? Although I'd love to take credit for figuring out the importance of focusing on the eyes all by myself, I have to thank Jasmine Star for that little tid-bit. She always has such great pointers. 


As always, I have included a few photos to support my tip. Check out all those beautiful eyes!

Happy shooting!