There, in your perfect group photograph, two people have their eyes closed. The next image, two different people do. It seems you just can’t get the timing right. There a few tricks that will get everyone’s eyes open every time.

It’s really simple. Set everyone up, looking the direction you want them to, smiles in place, poses set. Then have everyone close their eyes. Tell them to open them on the count of 3. Wait a moment until everyone has their eyes closed. Count to three in a measured pace, pause, and take your photograph.

The reflex is the eye has to open all the way before it can blink closed. This gives you plenty of time to take one to three images before that happens. The only thing to be careful with is don’t have them opening their eyes into direct sunlight. You will get really scrunched faces.

Wasn’t that easy!

Christmas lights, with all those incredible glowing decorations, just beg to be photographed, but usually they come out as colored pinpricks or a jagged blur of out-of-focus chunks of light. There are some easy things to fix all that.

The first thing you need is something to steady your camera on. A tripod is best, or gorilla pod. You can use a small beanbag or, in a pinch, set the camera on something solid. You will be working with longer exposures than you can hold without blurring.

For outdoor shots, the time of day is critical. Just around dusk or just before sunrise. By having some ambient light you can fill in the unlit areas of the trees and homes but still have the glowing light dominate.

Set your ISO speed to 400 or 800. If you go much higher you might start to get some grain or digital noise. You should test this; you will see the issue appear first in the shadow areas. Some of the newer cameras can go to higher ISOs, so do some testing.

Set your camera to manual for photographing Christmas. Set your aperture or f-stop to F8. This will give you a good depth of field for the focus. Going to f5.6 or f4 will give you more selective focus.

Start by setting your shutter speed at 1/30th of a second. As it gets darker you will have to slow it down to 1/15th, then 1/8th and so on. When you look at your LCD display you should see shapes in the shadows. A trick to help avoid camera shake when you press the shutter release is to use the camera’s self-timer.

If you are advanced enough to change the color balance you can set it on daylight to get the warm yellow glow or on tungsten to get the lights closer to their natural or real color. This setting will also increase the blue cast to the rest of the image but that’s okay, since it increases the tonal contrast of the image.

Use the Rule of Thirds to give your image powerful composition. Mentally divide your viewfinder into thirds vertically and horizontally. In the four points of intersection you should have something of interest in one or more of those points. A brighter or more interesting light or shape.

Indoors, you will still need the tripod but have a few of the room lights up, so there is some ambient light to fill in the areas the lights don’t illuminate.

So to recap:
1) Use a tripod.
2) Set your ISO to 400 or 800.
3) Set your camera to manual – start with F8 and shutter speeds of 1/30th of a second, slow that down as needed.
4) Set your colour setting to either daylight or tungsten depending on the effect you want.
5) Use Rule of Thirds for composition.

Happy Holiday shooting. If you follow these tricks you will get some great Christmas Lights photographs.

Just to be clear, we are not talking about the frame the print goes into, but “framing” your subject with something in the environment. The frame is a part of the scene, so it tells a bigger story and places your subject in context. It also suggests things about the image.

Simple framing would be doorways or windows. This creates a portal that takes the viewer into the world beyond, a suggestion of something being possible.

By being dark it adds drama, possibly danger, or suspense to your image. If it’s bright beyond your subject, it lends a heavenly, divine sense to the subject.

The lighter the frame, the more delicate and happy the image will feel. It creates a desire in the viewer to go through the frame and join them, and be part of the joy. You create the emotional trick of the viewer joining the joy by the desire to go through the frame.

The frame can be in front or behind your subject and it does not even need to be complete for it to work as a frame. The mind completes things when it sees the suggestion of the shape. So a subject can be seen through a gap in a row of surfboards  or, in the case of our winter, snow skis.

Here are some tricks to framing:

• Don’t skimp; pull back so you can see what the frame is.
• Keep it square. Frames usually have a geometric shape, so you have to be careful that the lines are level.
• You subject can “fill” the frame, or be small in the frame. Make the choice with purpose, each approach gives a different message to the viewer.
• In most cases the frame should not be so dark as to have no detail, or so bright it is washed out.
• Be creative. To be a frame you just need some space around the subject on the sides. You could “frame” a child by having them between adults but with some space so they are a little isolated and the adults are cropped out.
• The “frame” does not need to be in focus, conversely the subject does not need to be in focus (in this case the frame should be, though.)
• The “frame” can be artificial. You could hold up a fuzzy heart and shoot an embracing couple through it.

Once you get the hang of “framing” things you will be well on your way to creating powerful story telling images.

With these few tips you will be able to transform your winter photography. It’s an incredible time of year to create amazing images. Pros always say that the worse the weather is, the better the image. So here are 15 pro tricks that will make your images amazing.

When photographing a woman standing, there are five key things you can do that will instantly flatter her figure. She will be your client forever if you make her look amazing. It does not matter if you can see her legs because she is wearing a bikini or shorts, or if they are covered by a dress. The position of her legs helps to set up her attitude, and that will give her confidence and help you make a remarkable photograph.

Here are the five key things you can do that will help you with that:

1)    Have her put all her weight on the back leg. The leg that takes the weight goes thick and heavy.  It’s not as attractive as it sounds, so you don’t want that effect to be front and center. With all the weight on the back leg, she becomes stable and can easily position the front leg in a variety of ways. With no weight on the front leg, it will look slender and shapely.

2)    Raise the heel on the front leg. This is especially effective if she is barefoot. It gives the illusion of having a longer leg. It will also give a better shape to her calf. If she pushes down a bit on the toes, this isometric effort will activate her calf muscle, add a little sidelight and the muscle shape pops right out.

3)    Turn her hips away from the camera and her shoulders back to the camera. This creates a shapelier waist illusion. The hips present the thinnest width to the camera while the shoulders present the widest view. This gives the waist a V-shape, creating a fit and curvier female shape. If you place the hands on the waist it projects a very confident image. If she has a bit of a tummy, bring the far hand across the tummy to the pant line – she can hold a purse or something, or if it’s casual have her hold the belt. This hides the tummy while strengthening the V-shape body build form.

4)    Have her place her hands on her waist, not on her hips. This better defines the waist, gives a strong hourglass impression, and can also hid soft rolls or waist issues. If she has a soft tummy be sure she does not push in too far or firmly, as this will often push more of the tummy forward, creating a bulge.

5)    Tilt the camera upwards slightly. This will give the impression that she is taller. Be careful not to go overboard since it will also make her head look smaller if gone too far. When you do this, be mindful of the background. Quite often you will find the head goes above the background top creating a lot of clutter you will have to fix in post production.

The more of these techniques you can incorporate into your pose, the happier your client will be. Remember that the legs are the foundation of the pose. Always start there. Their position will become clues to the viewer as to the mood and attitude the subject has, even if the legs are not in the image.

Master the tricks of leg position and the rest comes relatively easy.