by.aaron.kok photography » Workshops http://www.aaronkok.com/blog capturing the moments that matter | Your Lifestyle & Wedding Portraits | Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:58:31 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Guides to better children photograpy http://www.aaronkok.com/blog/2009/02/16/guides-to-better-children-photograpy/ http://www.aaronkok.com/blog/2009/02/16/guides-to-better-children-photograpy/#comments Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:00:44 +0000 Aaron Kok http://www.aaronkok.com/blog/?p=188 As promised earlier this year here is my 1st part of a multi-posts on improving your children's photos.

I will begin with some simple tips  & maybe put to rest some worries too. Don't forget to comment if you have any questions.

Click more to continue. 

Babies and flashes.

Just welcomed a new member to your family and want to start capturing them? But wonders if the camera flash are harmful to the babies eyes?

Although there are some who says it does, there are no studies that says it's harmful. It's probably irritating to the babies, just as if someone shot multiple flashes right in front of my face.

Here are some links to advices and articles on flashes and eyes.

http://www.naturescapes.net/042004/do0404.htm – Dr. Dennis Olivero

http://www.ubhtnicu.com/parents/early%20days.htm – NHS – UK Hospital Recommendation

What I would recommend if you were to use flash, diffuse or bounce the flash away from the baby. This not only reduce the irritating direct flashes at the eyes, but at the same time, make the photo look better.

Sample photo of bounced and direct flash.

Sample of bounced and direct flash

Check out your friendly neighborhood camera store, or my favorite online store, www.shashinki.com for diffusers.

Another method is of course to switch off your flash, open some windows to allow daylight to fill the room. Or try bringing them out for walks and taking photo outdoors. Lights right around dusk and dawn are the best lights of the day.

Morning light
This was taken early in the morning around 8am

Since I mentioned outdoors, if you are ever caught out at the midday sun, and realized the photos don't look that good too, move your subjects into the shadows. Example behind a building or a tree. It's much easier for the camera and you to get a proper exposure. Trust me on this :)

If there is not enough light and you do not have any diffusers (even home made ones) use higher iso, ISO800-ISO1600 or above. Ignore the noise  etc etc, it's better to have a sharp noisy photo than a clean blurry one.

As long as you do not do large prints, or all your photos are for web, then high iso more than adequate, especially with current crop of high megapixel cameras.

As a final solution, you can even convert them to black & white, then all the noise disappears, or even becomes part of the "effect" of the photo. 

Camera Phone shot
This was shot with a camera phone
 

Just keep an eye out on more guides coming soon!

p/s: If you have a blog, and enjoy the posts, I would appreciate a mention or linkback :)

]]> http://www.aaronkok.com/blog/2009/02/16/guides-to-better-children-photograpy/feed/ 0 Beginner’s Workshop http://www.aaronkok.com/blog/2008/03/12/beginners-workshop/ http://www.aaronkok.com/blog/2008/03/12/beginners-workshop/#comments Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:39:34 +0000 Aaron Kok http://www.aaronkok.com/blog/?p=35 About a month back, I conducted a small workshop for a couple of friends who were interested in maximizing their dSLR they purchased. It's a stripped down, back to basics on digital SLR photography. The workshop went extremely well and I hope I made photography much more fun and remembers what the little buttons do. If anyone is interested in attending this workshop, just drop me a note on my e-mail at info[at]aaronkok.com

Intro_workshop

Here are some of the shots taken by me and the attendees using my camera. 

 

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