DACS General
Meeting
July 2008
Program Review:
How to Shoot & Edit Like A Pro,
Camera Techniques & Adobe Elements by Lesa King with Gary Spring,
resident camera expert of Ritz Camera in Danbury, CT
by Flo Ferrara, Acting VP
of Programs
The
DACS July presentation combined consumer information with real
life application. Gary Spring of
Ritz Camera in Danbury gave a very thorough and informative ‘show
and tell’ about the newest digital cameras on the market.
These ranged from the small point and click variety to the larger
SLR types.
After listening to Gary, I finally have an understanding of
what the megapixel numbers mean. I can also speak more intelligently
about things like aspect ratio, vibration reduction, optical
versus digital lens, zoom, and view finder.
While Gary only spoke for about 30 minutes, I could have listened
and learned for a much longer time. If you are thinking about
buying a new digital camera, or if you have questions about the
one you have, I urge you to contact Gary; his store is
located
at 61 Newtown Road in Danbury,
CT.
After
a brief respite, the learning continued with Lesa King and her ‘How
to Shoot & Edit Like a Pro’ presentation. Lesa passed
on to the audience, among other wonderful tidbits of information,
10 things one can do to take a better picture.
- Learn the settings on your camera – know where
the scene mode button is especially, so you can choose
one quickly (read the manual – gasp!);
- Composition – the rule of thirds; put the focal point
on one of the intersecting lines;
- Experiment – take vertical shots; use burst mode to
shoot as many quick shots as possible;
- Crop with your feet – physically get closer to the
subject and when you think you are close enough – take
three more steps;
- Change perspective – shoot at different angles – get
down on your hands and knees;
- Look behind you – you never know what you may see;
- Add depth – foreground and background;
- Use image editing software – play with color treatments;
- Use a card reader – cables are slow – card readers
are faster and more reliable;
- Naming and key wording – give your pictures meaningful
names and descriptions so they are easy for you to find.
Lesa also led the audience through a brief tutorial of Adobe
Elements. One of the coolest features of this software, I think,
is “merge photo”. You can take a number of photos
shot the same way; for example, a group shot of which you snapped
four or five. And then, you can pick the best of each and merge
them into one picture. It was very cool!
If you were unlucky enough to miss this presentation, you can
still take advantage of some of Lesa’s knowledge by visiting www.graphicreporter.com and
clicking on the Tutorials & QuickTips
link. Of course you will not have the same experience
we had on July 1 – Lesa’s presentation style is very
entertaining while being informative.
DACS was very lucky to have both Lesa and Gary share their expertise
with us!
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