Become Immune to Photo Foibles
During the Holidays and Beyond

Is It Possible to Eliminate Blinking in Photos...
FOREVER

Contents

1. Don't Close Your Eyes to the Blinking Problem

2. Capturing the Beauty of Holiday Lights

3. How to Take Unique Holiday Portraits

Your subjects can be certified insomniacs, but when their picture is taken, THAT IS WHEN they will blink, scratch their nose, or fall asleep. People have a tendency to close their eyes precisely at the time you close the shutter.

The good news is: There are several things you can do to lessen the chances of people blinking ("blinking" is used as a catchall for any undesired body or eye movement).

The bad news is: Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to COMPLETELY PREVENT blinking 100% of the time. However, we are working on something that can guarantee Your Final Images will be free of all blinking. (Information is at end of this topic.)

What You Can Do Now:

• Human Nature at Its Finest: Just before you trip the shutter, ask everyone to blink, get comfortable, and think of something funny.

  Even though your shutter only needs a fraction of a second to capture the picture, ask everybody to "remain frozen" for at least two seconds. Why? People will blink, so the longer they believe they need to remain still, the better your chances are for taking a blink-free photograph.

• Timing: Provide a countdown before tripping the shutter so the subjects will know when not to blink. If you want to capture natural beaming smiles, then it is best to know what your audience is likely to react to, and then surprise them with it.

  Get ready for the picture, don't begin the countdown, distract your subjects with conversation, and then at the perfect moment, without warning, take their picture.

• Take more than one picture per pose! People will blink, twitch, scratch, or look away regardless of what you say or do (but still say and do it).

• Small movements (like blinking) are next to impossible to detect while reviewing the image in your camera's LCD (even at full magnification). Just because you don't see blinking in the LCD screen doesn't mean it's not there. You can't be sure until you view the file on your computer.

• Check your owner's manual to see if your camera has a "Continuous Shooting" mode If it does, it will probably be expressed in feet per second ("fps"). This allows the shutter button to remain fully depressed and rapidly shoot several photographs.

  The higher the fps, the greater the number of pictures that will be taken per second when the shutter is fully depressed and held.

  In the past, most photographers simply posed the group, secured the camera, determined the proper settings... and then TOOK ONE PICTURE. That approach almost guarantees that blinking will take place.

  Fortunately, this is easy to change. Instead of taking just one photo, hold down the shutter and capture 3 to 6 pictures (assumes "continuous shooting" feature).

  If that feature is lacking, take several pictures with the subjects maintaining the exact same position and nothing being changes in regard to the camera.

• Steady as You Go: Use a tripod, whether you are going to be in the picture or not. If you are going to be in the photograph, using your camera's self timer and a tripod (or some other solid support for your camera) is mandatory. And, if you're not going to be in the shot, still use a tripod for sharper images.

Very soon, our next eBook (or video... we're not sure which yet) will be complete. It will contain everything you need to guarantee that your FINAL photographs will be BLINK-FREE.

If you want to be notified when The Blink Eradication System is available, you can complete a 14 second form (there's no obligation to purchase by completing the form). This system shows you how to both LESSEN blinking BEFORE the picture, as well as easily ELIMINATING BLINKING AFTER taking the picture.

Compare the ezine cover picture at the top (with 6 people blinking), to this same photograph that used the Blink Eradication System.

Photographing lights requires a small shift in your thinking because of the unique requirements not evident in other types of photography. Here are a few key factors that any nighttime photographer needs to keep in mind:


DO NOT USE the Flash:

Whether photographing tiny lights on a Christmas tree or an outside shot of an entire house decorated like the Griswolds of "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" fame; if you remember nothing else, remember this one thing...

Although not 100% true for all situations, I wanted to make a critical point. The mesmerizing beauty of flickering lights or candles in the dark will be completely ruined by using a flash. (The one exception to this guideline is described at the end of this section.)

Only a long exposure shot while the camera is on a tripod or some other solid surface, will produce the desired photograph. The only time you want to use a flash for nighttime photographs is to illuminate subjects within 10-12 feet of the camera.

Exposure: The only way you are going to capture acceptable nighttime photographs is by using a long exposure with the camera on a tripod.

Light Requirements: The combination of shutter speed and aperture size determines the total amount of light your camera processes. Since the aperture of most digital cameras is not very large (i.e., F/2.8 or F/3.5), the only variable to play with is the amount of time the aperture remains open. Therefore, a long shutter speed is needed.

Tripod: Because the aperture stays open for a relatively long time (1/2 second to several minutes), it is crucial that the camera remain rock-steady (in other words, "use a tripod"). Otherwise, camera shake will be very obvious and ruin the picture.

Firing the Shutter: Even with a tripod, consider these 2 approaches to completely eliminate camera shake:

1. Use a remote shutter release, or
2. Use the camera's self-timer to trip the shutter

Believe it or not, with a long exposure, hand firing the shutter button (even though the camera is on a tripod) can introduce vibrations... maybe not enough to ruin the picture, but enough to be noticeable.

And now the exception mentioned earlier:

If you want to photograph a friend who is in front of a brightly lit background (house with decorative lights, for example), position the camera so your friend is not further away than the range of your flash.

Check your owner's manual for a setting that allows the flash to fire and still keeps the shutter open for an additional time period afterwards. The flash will capture your friend while the longer exposure will capture the background subject.

During the holidays, with all the parties, dinners, and family getogethers, there will be numerous opportunities to take portraits. Here are a few suggestions to have your portraits knock the socks off Santa.

• Be Alive

• Props

• Backgrounds

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