How To Take Great Photos

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How To Choose A Great Photo for Your Online Profiles

When you're networking or online dating, it can be difficult to know how to choose your profile photo. That picture is the first impression you'll give your potential contacts, so making the right choice is really important. Here's how to be sure you're using a great photo…

1- Hire a professional photographer: Whether for business networking or online dating, you want to present yourself in the best possible way. Using an arm's length self portrait taken with your automatic camera, or a slightly blurry, halfway decent shot someone took of you at a party, is NOT a good representation of you.

When you use obviously amateur photos for your profile, it gives the idea that you don't value yourself enough to bother with a proper, quality picture. However, when you use a professional, good quality photo, it shows that you do understand the importance of investing in yourself.

2- Be yourself: Remember, the whole reason for networking or online dating sites, is to make a connection. You want to choose a professional photo that's a real reflection of your personality and who you are.

During your professional photography session, don't fake a big cheesy smile, don't try to look sultry or mysterious and don't overdo it with styling products, accessories or make up. Instead, relax for your photoshoot, style yourself as you normally do and be sure to wear clothing that you feel comfortable in and that you wear often.

3- Choose a current photo: It's dishonest and it also gives the impression of insecurity if you're using a profile picture that was clearly taken several years ago. (Even if you do have professional photos from more than a few years back, don't use them, get new ones instead.)

Even if it's not obvious on the internet that your photo is over two or three years old, when you meet an online connection in person, they'll immediately realize that you represented yourself dishonestly. It's much better to use a current photo that shows the best qualities of who you are right now.

4- Know that you're worth it and it will pay off: When you create a profile to make either romantic or business contacts online, you're already taking a step toward improving your life. Make the choice to represent yourself with a professional, natural and current photo. It's absolutely worth the time, effort and expense, because when you make even one networking or dating connection, it's an immediate return on your investment.

About the Author

Tamea Burd is a Vancouver photographer specializing in wedding, portrait, corporate and headshot photography. Her website: www.tameaburdphotography.com

How To Take Good Pictures


how to take great photos5
how to take great photos5

How To Take Great Photos

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Do you know of a camera under $700 that takes great-quality photos?

Nikon d5000, Canon EOSs, Panasonic, etc, etc. Please be specific.

I don't know "camera-speak," so when looking for a camera, is there a number that I should be looking at that's going to tell me how good the picture quality is (like pixels and things like that?)

Do you know of any websites that have samples of pictures taken from the camera so that I can judge the quality for myself (a site that's not sponsored by the camera company?)

Thanks, guys!

For that price, you could go for a Rebel XSi (or equivalent in Nikon or sony ... i just shoot Canon so that's what I am most familiar with) ... it's my backup camera to my T1i at weddings ...

Megapixels aren't that important unless you want to start printing billboards really. Anything over 6MP will do you fine so the Xsi (at 10MP or is it 12MP ... I forget) is good enough.

These are portraits my wife took at a wedding ... we offer a service where we take portraits of all the guests (that want to) and have them sign in a book and I merge that into a photobook as their guestbook. My wife is NOT a photographer, she just does this for me at weddings while I do reception shots so we don't have to hire a second shooter and that way we keep our operating cost lower.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51633413@N07/4824410992/in/set-72157624447483747/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51633413@N07/4823800907/in/set-72157624447483747/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51633413@N07/4823804967/in/set-72157624447483747/

These were taken with a Rebel XSi in RAW, they are unedited (other than nudging the contrast and shadows a tiny bit), they were shot with one off camera flash behind a shoot through unbrella and with a backdrop. I usually also have a second flash shooting at the backdrop to drown out the shadow created by the light from the umbrealla (look at the left hand side) but we were short one flash that day ... buying some cheap flashes (40$ each) for off camera work this week to supplement my 3 current flashes.

I can print these at poster size and they look absolutely gorgeous.

Start with a starting DSLR with a kit lens and learn about apperture, shutter speed and ISO to start ... once you understand what these things are and how they interact to create a picture THEN you can start looking at more lenses, a shoe mount flash ... by then, you should know what type of photography interests you most (portraits, landscape, sports, wildlife, macro ...). Each type of photography uses different gear.

The best site for reviews and examples of shots, I find, is www.DPReview.com (DP as in Digital Photography). They compare similar cameras, show exmaples, explain what the pros and cons are ... just a great site for reviews.

A good site to learn about the use of flash (on and off camera) is http://strobist.blogspot.com but first learn about shutter speed, ISO and aperture.

How to Take Good Pictures : How to Adjust the Lens Aperture


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how to take great photos5
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