Posted on 6 Comments

Camera fun

I curled up on the couch this weekend with a can of Dr.Pepper and a copy of How to Photograph Absolutely Everything, a great new book I picked up at the library on a whim. It was my plan to read through some of the basics, play around with my camera, and see if I could improve my technique a bit.

It really is a fabulous book, short on wordy descriptions and heavy on the  illustrative photographs.  I’m thinking I may need a copy for my personal collection, as it looks to be a fantastic reference.  I flipped through the first few sections, on a quest to learn how to take beautiful, realistic shots, and I picked up all kinds of helpful information.

So tell me, then, how is it that most of the images I took that afternoon looked like this??

We discovered the color swap setting on my camera

Let’s just say that in the course of reading about candid portraits, I found something I needed to look up in my camera’s manual.  I’ve had my camera for a year, but have never actually looked in the manual for anything aside from, embarassingly enough, how to turn the darn thing on.   So, I started reading about some of the advanced features of the camera and discovered “color swap mode.”

This could be the least realistic thing in the world, and completely counter to what I was trying to accomplish with my photography skills when I first sat down with the book, but honestly, realism just isn’t this fun!

For most of these pictures, I focused on our skin, and chose that as the color to be replaced.  And then, I looked around the room and found any number of brightly-colored objects to focus on as the replacement color – a pale aqua pillow, Aidan’s neon green shirt, a hot pink ball, a red pillowcase – you get the idea.

Little alien boy Little alien boy

We took so many pictures this way, I drained my batteries and filled up my memory card.  I still have not learned the best way to take a candid portrait, but I can turn my children into aliens like nobody’s business.  Now you tell me, which is the more important skill?

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Posted on 6 Comments

6 thoughts on “Camera fun

  1. LOL! I’m sure the boys would vote for “turn my children into aliens”! ;o) That looks like a fun trick to know for birthday parties and sleep-overs, too– a whole… landing party? crew?… of little aqua, lime, or red alien kids!

  2. I vote for aliens. If you need the candid portrait….call in the professional….aliens are way better 😀
    .-= See Kathi’s latest blog post: New Direction =-.

  3. Funny. I am still figuring out my camera as well…getting better, but there is so much to learn! I am going to check out that book. I see some people’s pics and am green with jealousy. I need your color swap camera to show a true representation. My Macbook has a camera and will add different effects to a picture. The Boy especially likes that feature. God forbid him ever getting his hands on my computer.
    .-= See dani@little fists’s latest blog post: What’s For Dinner? =-.

  4. i was just thinking today that i need to get my manuel out again and read it.
    Want to come join the play along?
    http://whosies.blogspot.com/2009/06/play-along-night-stand.html

  5. You are so funny. 🙂 Yes, this is indeed fun!
    .-= See Tracy’s latest blog post: Film =-.

  6. […] though, he’s exploring the use of color-swap mode in movie-making.  Nothing like a curious 10-year-old to make camera feature documentation […]

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