List
Point, Click and Keep
Your kids have agreed to stop having fun long enough for
you to take their picture. So you whip out your phone and…
Why is the sun so blinding? Are you too close? And what’s
with the faces? Point-and-click cameras have made it easier
than ever to take spontaneous images. To make the most of
all the photo opps, we asked local portrait photographer and
studio owner MICHAEL STAHL for some tricks of the trade.
Seven strategies for grabbing good snapshots
5 | CHASE CLOUDS…
1 | SHOOT FOR IMPACT
If you’re shooting outside, the bright sun is
not your friend. Clouds make the light more
diffuse and less harsh.
There’s an old phrase in photography:
“If your photos aren’t good enough,
you’re not close enough.” Move up
enough to fill the frame.
2 | THE RIGHT HEIGHT
When you’re photographing kids, don’t
point the camera down and take the
picture from above. You’ll get more
dramatic, impactful photos if you take
them from the same level.
3 | A BIT OFF-CENTER
18
MAY 2017 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE
6 | …OR FIND THE SHADE
4 | FILTERS APP-LY
There are apps that help from an
editing standpoint. I use one called
Snapseed that adds detail and
changes lighting on my iPhone
shots. If you have a great image,
but it’s too dark or bright, you can
overlay artistic interpretations.
On really sunny days, you’ll get best results
posing your photo subjects against a tree
trunk, wall or other shady place. Ideally,
you want the sun at a 45-degree angle,
streaming across the subjects to light
their faces.
7 | AVOID THE “S” WORD
We never say “Smile!” in our studio. Instead,
we try to be funny so people smile without
thinking about it.
In the art
world, there’s
a thing called
the “rule of
thirds.” You
divide the
frame into thirds across and up and
down, and the intersections of the
lines are the points where it’s most
interesting. The editing grid on your
iPhone allows you to move your image
around this way; you can crop to put
the point of interest, not in the dead
center, but in a more unexpected place.