Adventuroo.com

A Raleigh, North Carolina mom capturing the everyday

The Secret to Great Photos

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People tell me I take good pictures. Sheesh, that sounds kinda braggy but I don’t mean to be. It’s just I think people sell themselves short when they break out the camera. They think it’s because they don’t have a fancy camera or that they don’t know what words like aperture or depth-of-field mean.

Well, I’m here to tell you my biggest secret: TAKE MORE PICTURES.

You’re probably like, “DUH! Of course I should take more pictures!”

But really, taking lots of pictures gives you lots of chances to capture the perfect shot. Most of you have a digital camera, right? Well, what do you have to lose? Take tons of pictures then keep only the best and delete the others after you upload them to your computer.

I broke out the kiddie splash pool yesterday. It was so sunny out though, making it hard to see my pictures on the camera’s screen. So I took lots. Like 40 pictures in five minutes. Here are three examples of why taking so many pictures pays off.

The “meh” pic:

I didn’t like this picture much because it’s focused on the pail and Trajan’s face is in the shadow.

The awesome pic:

Much better. The picture is focused on Trajan and Little Roo is nicely blurred in the background. The dog is in the light more, too. The best part? His expression. A true sun dog, with squinty eyes soaking up the sun.

The “meh” pic:

While it’s hard to say ANY pic with Little Roo in it is “meh,” I was really trying to get him looking at the camera WITH the hat on. Given he was taking the hat off within two seconds of me putting it on his head, this one took lots of tries.

The awesome pic:

Success! He’s not smiling, but he has a cute expression on his face. Notice he’s trying to take off the hat AGAIN. I snapped it just in time.

The “meh” pic:

Little Roo is enjoying the water but his hand’s out of focus, his arm is blown out and his face is shadowed.

The awesome pic:

This shot is one of my faves of Little Roo… ever! I managed to get his face in focus and the water and hand blurred. The picture captures his curiosity beautifully.

Do you take lots of pictures? Do you delete the “meh” ones once they hit your computer, delete only the worst ones or keep them all?

Comments

  1. I’m a keep’em all kind of girl. Sometimes I’ll delete the REALLY “meh” pictures as soon as I take them but I’m guilty of keeping them all. I mean, what if I need that super blurry picture of my daughter eating jelly beans?! Would I ever forgive myself if I deleted it? I know, I need an intervention! But now, I’m inspired to delete more of the “meh” pictures.

    • You’re too funny. I keep “meh” ones if they capture the moment but are otherwise crappy pics. I have many blurry pictures of my kids but their expression was so perfect that I couldn’t let go!

  2. That last pic rules! I take a ton of pics on my phone since I don’t love my camera. I try to delete the meh ones daily and transfer them to the comp or they get out of hand. It’s always hardest to delete any of the Bubs, but I have learned to be ruthless. The are always going to be more cute pics to take of him:)

  3. I love the one of your dog with LR in the background. That’s the kind of pic that takes a lot of clicks! I use my iPhone as my camera and take lots and lots of pictures. I’m terrible about organizing them – so I have thousands of pics and then every few months I go through and delete them. My girls also take a lot of pics with my phone, so I end up finding all sorts of strange shots!

  4. I keep a lot of bad pics (online only). The reason? I never know when I’m going to want a picture of my mom’s hands to compare them with mine. Or a picture of what my daughter’s hair looked like after her baby curls straightened. I realize this makes me obsessive. I’ve accepted it. 😉

    • Great points! I try to judge a good pic by what’s in it instead of the quality of pic. I’ll keep a blurry face if it tells a great story!

    • Haha- thanks! You should come link up on Thursdays sometime. I do a “Capture the Everyday” meme where I give an assignment and ask y’all to capture it. Next week is “sign that summer’s coming.” Yay- I love summer!

  7. Great helpful post Mel. Love it. I really like the one of little roo reaching for the water. You’re so dead on. I take a million photos. In the end, I only really delete the really bad ones. We have a whole separate hard drive for photos, it’s that bad.

    BTW, I’m so very, very proud and excited for you with Momcomm and the SITS partnership. You so rock and you really are an inspiration. I’ve been focusing more outside of my blog as I’m building my PR and branding biz, but I’m LOVING seeing you doing so well. A kick in the butt really is a step forward, isn’t it? 🙂

    • Too funny about the hard drive!

      Thanks for the super sweet words. Meant a lot! BTW, I owe you an email response so stay tuned. I promise I haven’t forgotten!

  9. I delete all the “meh” (or worse) photos. I’m really trying to post only my best stuff, though I let some bleh photos slide through. I will keep a photo of my kids if it’s “meh” and I have nothing good like it. I don’t want to let go of a memory just because it’s slightly out of focus, but I try not to publish them.

    I really like this tip. Take lots of photos and post the best!

    • Same here- I keep a bad quality photo if the content is good (i.e. it tells the story I want to tell, even if it’s blurry)!

  10. My husband is the photographer… he always asks me to weed through and pick the ones that are meh but I have a hard tome deleting anything with my kids face in it!

  11. I believe that thanks to Jen, we have what are possibly the most heavilly documented children in the world, save for Princes William and Harry the Early Years.

    • Haha! The pictures will mean so much though many years from now (and now too of course). Thanks for stopping by, primo!

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