shooting prince george

August 21, 2013  •  Leave a Comment

 



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Shooting Prince George

The latest baby photos are not so great - but YOU can do better. Here's some handy tips to get better shots.

pic1

Too much backlight looks bad - and makes the faces too dark and lack definition.

you can do better!

We've all seen the latest photos of our future king - but as 'official' photographs they are actually quite poor. I understand that the Royal couple didn't want any professional photographer to interfere with their newborn bubble - but the world is watching, and to be honest I think these latest images are less than stellar.

Looking at the photos - they look as if they're taken on a phone camera, or a very basic compact camera- probably by Kate's father.

They're also not in focus which is quite poor too, and you can't really see the baby properly (which let's face it is what people want to see) - but that's not the main issue.

so what went wrong?

We've all heard people say 'don't shoot into the sun' - and there's a really GOOD reason for this. It makes the background totally over-exposed and really hard to get a decent exposure and light onto the subject.

It's SO bright behind that the camera's exposure is set for the background - so you have to compensate for this by adding MORE light to the front.

Most compact cameras or cameras in automatic mode will try and take an average exposure based on the whole frame, but when it's SO bright in the background it will almost certainly confuse things. So you can do a couple of things..

  • Move direction
  • Add light

Now sometimes you can't just move the subject - perhaps the opportunity will be lost, so in this case you need to ADD light to balance the background with the foreground.

The simplest way is to just add some flash. Assuming you're close enough most cameras with built in flash will be bright enough to add what is known as FILL light.

Your flash may not pop up automatically, because it's too bright. Find the little lightning bolt symbol and press whatever buttons to make the flash pop up manually. Then take the shot.

The flash will fire and add some front light to balance the shot. Even with a phone camera, you can put the little LED 'flash' on. If you're close enough it will work.

This is what Kate's dad should have done.

pic 2

This is better- Kate has a nice backlight on her hair but their faces are dull and washed out.

about me

I am a fully qualified member of the BIPP in Press & PR photography as well as a member of the Federation of European Photographers. The BIPP is the official qualifying body for professional photographers in the UK.

I am represented by the Stephen Bartels Gallery in London.

I have full public liability and insurance cover.

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