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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