PC_Advisor_Issue_264_July_2017

Feature: Best photography techniques
Use a narrow (f/22) aperture to make sure
the entire shot is in focus. Don’t be tempted
to use a very wide-angle lens that misses
what’s interesting or dramatic in a scene,
Natural shots of children
usually achieve the best results
and think about the foreground as much as
the most distant objects. Creating depth in
a landscape provides a context and scale.
10. How to take
a better group portrait
With each added person to a group, the
possibility of them all doing what you want
at the same time becomes increasingly small.
The real trick is, therefore, organisation.
Telling everyone where they should be,
and possibly where they should look.
Never take just one picture, take lots in
burst mode, because you might even need
to stitch the best together to get everyone
to look their best at the same time.
Don’t be concerned about getting in close,
as unless it’s a fashion shoot very few people
will be concerned if their shoes aren’t in shot.
11. Don’t buy cheap flash cards
There was a time when flash memory was
expensive, and large capacity cards could
be outrageous. They’re not any longer, so
don’t skimp on getting a decent brand and
a high-speed specification.
Buy Class 10 cards, even if you’re camera
will work with lower specification ones. It will
One way to get an interesting seascape
is to wait for an especially windy day
make saving the shots quicker, allowing for
faster burst speeds, and it will also increase
the speed of transfer to the computer.
12. How to take a better selfie
The problem with smartphone selfies is
that most phones front-facing cameras
are rubbish compared with the rear-facing
one. That’s because they were designed
mostly for live video conversations, and
not taking still images.
There a few ways you can get around this,
the most obvious being to shoot into a mirror.
Alternatively, on Android and iOS, there are
plenty of apps that can identify a face and
will tell you when you’ve aligned the phone
correctly to take a picture without having a
screen to see. This method
84 www.pcadvisor.co.uk/features July 2017