Taking a great photo is often a difficult task. Capturing that perfect shot can feel like pot luck sometimes, and if you’re planning on immortalising your memory with a Top five photo taking tips for your personalised puzzles then the pressure is on.
Fortunately, we’ve got a few tips to help you take your best shot.
1. Volume is key to a good group photo
The most important thing to remember when taking a group photo is, take a lot of photos! Someone is almost certainly going to be blinking, looking down or off to the side, so the more photos you take, the more likely you are to get one everyone is happy with.
And if you get a great group photo, they make the perfect present as a personalised puzzle or just a nice creative way to remember an event.
2. Remember The Rule of Thirds
The ‘rule of thirds’ is a common term in photography. Imagine four lines, two lying horizontally across the image and two vertical creating nine even squares. Some images will look best with the focal point in the center square, but placing the subject off center will often create a more aesthetically composed photograph. When a photograph is composed without using the rule of thirds the eyes will wander the frame. A picture composed by the rule of thirds is more interesting and pleasing to the eye.
3. Get close
Getting closer to your subject is also an effective tactic. The simple fact is the audiences are always more impressed when the subject is huge and impossible to miss. Therefore, you want your subject to fill the frame in an aesthetic way (that means not so close we can’t see what your photo is of!).
4. Try not to use flash indoors
Flash can look harsh and unnatural, especially for indoor portraits. But there are various ways you can take an image indoors without resorting to flash.
Try to position your subjects standing near a window or door instead of relying on the flash. Get between your subject and the window — in other words, don't include the window in your composition, as this will throw off your camera’s exposure making your subject too dark and the window too light.
If you are shooting indoors at night, try to flood the room where you are photographing with as much light as you can - turn on whatever lamps you have at hand. This will help reduce those harsh, flashed-out subjects, as well as other problems like red-eye.
5. Use flash outside (even on a sunny day)
Although it may seem odd to use flash when the sun's out, that's precisely the time when you should use it!
The sun can cause all sorts of problems for portrait photographers: harsh shadows across faces, unbalanced exposures and burnt-out highlights.
Use a bit of 'fill flash' and you'll instantly improve your portraits; your camera will capture a much more balanced exposure, because your flash will light up your subject while the camera exposes for the background.
6. Add a little direction
Instead of just shooting people where they stand, try giving some advice — only you can see what’s in the shot. It’s not just the person or object in your frame, it’s everything else in the background that can make or break a great photograph. So don’t be afraid to ask the person to move (or move yourself) to avoid something ugly in the background. Also let people know if they should lean in, move back or huddle closer so everyone looks their best.
Now you know how to take the perfect snap, why not turn an incredible memory into a wonderful wooden jigsaw by entering our competition to win a personalised puzzle?
Some of our best memories come from holidays, and as we’re nearing the end of holiday season we wanted to do something to celebrate all the memories created. All you have to do is share your favourite holiday photo. It could be recent or from a past holiday, just share it on our Facebook or Twitter pages and follow us for a chance to win.
Personalised puzzles vary from 360 x 250mm to 730 x 510mm and each come with a selection of themed whimsies, or you could choose a custom puzzle with difficult pieces, or a bespoke wooden jigsaw puzzle with 'Happy Birthday' 'Happy Anniversary' or 'Thank You' letter shaped pieces.