*Now in US sizes! Love that because the UK sizes always seem to run small to me!

Wendy was kind enough to let me “guest post” on her blog about photography. I use digital gear for portrait and event photography. With digital SLR’s like the Canon Rebel dropping steadily in price, more people have access to amazing imaging machines with more features you could ever use. Even digital point-and-shoots boast more bells and whistles than high-end film cameras of old. Trouble is, as complex and powerful as these cameras have become, many people don’t know simple rules for taking better pictures. So, here are some ideas to quickly improve your photographs, regardless of what camera you use:

5) The most direct route from a good picture to a great picture is the time-tested “rule of thirds”. I’ll bet many of you put your subject smack-dab in the middle to avoid the old fear of cutting someone’s head halfway out of the frame. While simple and effective, it also makes for rather static, boring pictures.

To use this rule, cut the frame into thirds horizontally and vertically. The main focus point of your picture (like the person’s eyes) should be near one of the intersecting points.

For whatever reason, our brains like to view things following the “rule of thirds”. Look at any magazine ad, the Mona Lisa, any of your favorite photographs. Chances are the main focus lies at or near one of these intersecting points in the frame.
Here’s how to do it:

a) Focus on the main subject and press the camera shutter halfway down. This focuses the camera on your subject (always the eyes in portraits).

b) Keep pressing the shutter halfway down, locking the camera’s focus on the subject.

c) Move the camera slightly to recompose the shot, placing the subject near one of these intersection points (usually the top intersection points for portraits).

d) Press the shutter all the way down to take the picture.

6) Last but not least, sometimes break all the rules. Take pictures from crazy angles. Partially cut off the subject in the frame. You’ll develop your own style. Wendy has some great examples of this throughout her blog – she has some amazing shots!

I hope these ideas help you create better images of your world. Check out www.sniderphotos.com to see examples of these rules at work. Good luck, and keep shooting.  – Scott Snider

Comfy bed

On a conference call

Forgot my workout stuff and shoes to go with my dress for awards dinner tonight! Oh Well!

I wish everyone a happy, loving and blessed valentine’s day! I’m off to Cincinnati next week for our annual sales meeting, so hopefully I’ll have some fun stories to tell and pictures to share! Not looking forward to going to where it is even colder than it is here, but it will be fun!

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll remember I participated in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer last year in Washington, DC and had a wonderful and meaningful experience. I am lucky to be part of a group of women called the Pink Pacers and we have raised more than $111,000 for breast cancer research through the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. We recently made a decision to start doing more in our local community because we wanted to better see the results of our work and make an immediate impact close to home.

The local opportunity came to us through an organization called Get REAL & HEEL. The Get REAL & HEEL program is an after care breast cancer program that helps women regain their well-being and quality of life after breast cancer treatment. The program improves physical and psychosocial well-being by delivering five months of exercise and recreation therapy all at no cost to the participants. Get REAL & HEEL develops an individualized plan that helps each participant manage cancer treatment related symptoms and increase chances of survivorship and quality of life and is currently provided to individuals free of charge.

Just some of the Pink Pacers

Because these services are offered free of charge, they needed fundraising support and local awareness building. The Pink Pacers have officially joined with Get REAL & HEEL to help bridge the gap between treatment and active living and are sponsoring an upcoming walk Saturday, March 27th, 2010 on the campus of Chapel Hill and are hosting a family fun event THIS SUNDAY, Feb. 14th at Carmichael for the Carolina Blue and Pink Gymnastics Meet and Cancer Awareness Fair! For more details visit the Pink Pacers Blog.

For any of your Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill folks, please consider signing up for our inaugural walk to help this wonderful program! You can sign up by clicking here.

If you are interested in learning more about the Pink Pacers and following our story, visit the Pink Pacers Blog.

Future Pink Pacers Hanging Out with the UNC Women’s Gymnastic Team (See my little guy?)

I have several photographers working on some future guest posts for this series, so look for those soon, but today I’m going to talk a little about editing. Most, if not all, of the photos you see from professional photographers have been manipulated by what are called Photoshop Actions. These are mostly custom, sometimes purchased actions that make photos look pretty much however you want them to look. You can sharpen images, adjust colors, convert to black and white, add or adjust shading, take off 10 lbs, smooth baby skin…the options are endless.

You’ve probably heard about Photoshop, and LightRoom and tons of different photo editing software packages, and some can get pretty pricey. I am lucky enough to have copies of several packages on my computer, but when I’m quick editing, I use the Microsoft Picture Editor, which you probably already have on your computer.

Below I’ve explained a couple of ways you can make just an ok picture really pop through different adjustments and features in the picture editor. First, open your picture with the picture editor. On my machine, all jpgs are set to open with the Microsoft Picture Editor. Here’s the photo I’m gonna work with, in it’s original form, pre-editing:

This is a cute photo of my little guy, but I don’t like the oil spot on the concrete and I’d like to focus in more on his tongue touching the donuts, so I decided to crop it a little, using the crop option under the picture menu. I’d also like to make it a vertical photo vs. its current horizontal layout.

Then I decided to keep cropping it a bit more to get that blue cooler out of the back, so just play with it until you get it like you want. Always keep the original so you can go back and start over if you want.

To make the colors pop a bit more, I go to the picture menu again, and click on color to play with the saturation (this is one of the tips I stole from Mckmama). In this option, I increased it by 12. So not a huge difference, but just makes the colors a bit more vibrant.

Then, the final adjustment I make is in the brightness and contrast section under the picture menu. Just play with the brightness, contrast and midtones until you get something you like. In this case, I decreased the brightness by 4, increased the contrast by 22 and increased the midtones by 36.

Which, together, gives me this:

It only took two years, but my two little kiddos are finally getting along.
Now if I could just get my little Lucy to stop chewing on my furniture, life would be a dream.

Also, just to put a little plug in there for me – I’ve got a new southern quote print in the shop!
Check it out here!

• It’s still January – will this month ever end?
• Had a fight with my boss (and cried in his office – hate doing that).
• Have no money because I caught up on all my Christmas bills and first-of-the-year taxes.
• P.M.S. (see zits in above self-portrait)

Last night I decided to turn things around, so I made giant, triple-chocolate cupcakes, just because. And we ate them for dinner. All of us – including the dog. Needless to say, the little guy was bouncing off the walls at bedtime, but we were all in much better spirits.

This morning I was all pouty and weepy and Mike just hugged me and said, “if I was your boss, I’d give you the biggest raise I could.” That lifted my spirits – almost as much as the chocolate. Almost.

“When life gives you PMS, make giant, triple-chocolate cupcakes. For dinner.”