At Blog Your Best 2016 an entire panel was devoted to photography. We had Kelly Larkin of Kelly In The City and Regan Baroni of Up Close and Tasty on hand to share their tips and answer attendee’s questions.
The discussion was productive and helpful and hopefully not too overwhelming to newbie photographers! A few key takeaways from Kelly and Regan included:
- Work to get the camera settings right for the shot instead of relying on editing.
- Opt to underexpose a photo when taking it – if it is over exposed you can’t get that detail back!
- If you have a crop sensor DSLR (which is the more common consumer type of sensor) you need a 35mm prime lens, not a 50mm like most people suggest
But the most important message of the day was:
Practice with your camera’s manual settings every single day.
Practice makes perfect better and the best way to improve and to define your photography style is to practice.
Kelly and Regan also recommended a few books that helped them when they were getting started.
- Plate to Pixel: Digital Food Photography & Styling 1st Edition by Helene Dujardin
- Understanding Photography Series by Bryan Peterson
The weather is getting warmer – or at least it will be soon – so make a commitment to learning your DSLR camera’s manual settings this spring!
Another talented photographer in the WCBC community is member, Blair of The Fox and She. Blair created the following manual settings cheat sheet which you should bookmark, pin, save to your photo roll and reference it often when practicing your manual settings!