How to take GREAT photos!

These are some helpful hints on taking photos I have found and am sharing at Works for me Wednesday hosted by Rocks in my Dryer:

1. Take LOTS of photos! If it is grandkids, something you are trying to sell, or anything in between take a bunch of photos. I take about 100 photos for each of my yarns I have for sale and up towards 300 when doing a photo session for my little un. So glad I have a digital camera otherwise I am not sure what would happen to me!

2. Check out the background. It doesn't have to be Plain Jane but you don't want it to be too busy either. With children and pets this can not always be determined until after the photo is taken but in still life you can play a whole bunch.

3. Remember that you can crop! ok, so you don't like the weird person that is standing in the background of a photo. No problem, cut them out. Don't have a photo editing software? Look into getting The Gimp for free. And check out this tutorial page.

4. Look objectively at the photo. Look at the photo and ask yourself "how are my eyes traveling around the photo?" Are they centering in on what you want it to center in on? Do your eyes move around the photo? If so where? Are these places you want other peoples eyes to linger? Does the photo direct your eyes off the photo? If it does is that ok? And remember that a man's eyes move differently than a woman's eyes.

5. Color accuracy is important! Ok, not so much with people photos, but with something you are trying to sell online, you HAVE TO HAVE accurate colors, at least as accurate as possible.