OK a lot of people have asked me in PM how I am able to take such clear pictures of my make-up. I thought I would compile a list of tips so that everyone can get great results.
1.
Try to take your make-up pics in natural light conditions. Daylight is best to show off your make-up skills. I usually take my pictures indoors in the early afternoon when it is bright outside, but I avoid direct sunlight because this can wash out the colours and cast weird shadows. A brightly lit room will do fine.
Alternately, a halogen spotlight with a dark background can work well too, but it's a bit more difficult to set up. I'll show you what I mean.
Daylight without flash:
Nighttime with halogen spotlight, no flash:
2.
Take your pictures against a calm background. Against a wall without any busy patterns or stuff in the back is best. A white wall works excellent for this. This puts the focus on YOU and doesn't distract the viewer's eye by checking out things behind you, like bathroom cabinets, etc.
Here's an example of a distracting background. Probably not the best example but you get what I mean.
OK let's move onto the camera settings! Most people probably have point&shoot digital cameras and I will try to post some general tips how to best maximize your camera's settings.
Tips when using flash.
- If you have some manual settings, change the camera's ISO level to as low as you can. An ISO of 100 or even a 50 if you have one is good. The higher the ISO setting, the more light your camera will "absorb" to the image. For example, if you are in a darker room and want to take a picture WITHOUT flash, you would set the ISO to 400 or 800 because the camera will take more light in. But when you are using flash, the flash provides a bright light to hit your subject, so a low ISO setting is adequate. You can usually change the ISO levels in the menu settings.
- If you have a FILL-IN FLASH option, use that. It will create a less bright flash than a normal flash, and it helps to "fill in" darker areas on the subject.
- If you have shutter priority setting, usually denoted by a "Tv" symbol on the settings dial, use it! (Sometimes also an "S" symbol.) It often looks like this on the settings dial.
This adjusts how fast or slow your pictures are exposed. So for example, a setting of 1/20 means the lens is open for a 20th of a second, 1/100 means 100th of a second, 1/200 means 200th of a second. When you're using flash, you want a SLOW shutter speed, something between the range of 1/15 to 1/45. Play around with the different shutter speed settings until you get a picture that you think accurately reflects the colours on yourself.
- Usually pictures that are "washed out" are the ones where the shutter speed is set too fast and the flash overexposes your skin tone and makeup. That, and the ISO setting is too high.
- Use a red-eye reduction function to prevent red eyes on pictures. This is usually a beam of light or a small flash before the main flash that will close your pupils.
Here's an example of a well-exposed picture using flash and adjusting the shutter priority settings. As you can see, it isn't obvious that I am using flash, it looks natural. This picture is taken indoors, in daylight.
TO SUM UP: When using flash, use a low ISO setting and a slow shutter speed.
So, if you don't use flash, make sure your face is getting hit by enough light (maybe stand next to a window) and use a faster shutter speed to avoid camera-shake. This is what makes pictures a bit blurry! Flash often prevents blurriness as long as you are holding the camera calmly.
Tips for using the macro setting on your camera for close-ups.
- This is what the macro setting usually looks like on your settings dial:
- Use this setting when you want to take a very up-close picture of your eyes or lips, for example. The macro setting is a way to tell your camera to adjust the focus to a very up close subject, and your camera's automatic focus should be able to get it right. To take a good macro pic, you usually need adequate light settings and it may be hard to get a good focus in dim light. So again, daylight is usually best, in a well-lit room.
Here's a picture where I used the macro setting to take a picture of my eye very close up.
Tips for White Balance.
This setting is usually found in the menu of your camera, it looks something like this:
This adjusts the colours on your picture and helps to prevent the yellow-ish tinge a lot of indoor pictures have. You can either select Automatic white balance which is usually the most practical, or you can select the different programs depending on the light condition, like Cloudy, Sunny, Tungsten, Halogen, etc. Play around and see what looks best and the most natural. You can also do Custom White Balance where you take a picture of something pure white in the propper light conditions and set that as your white balance, but I don't recommend this for most people as you have to set it for every shot you take and it can be hard to master.
Center-weighted evaluation
This option tells your camera to focus on subjects that are in the middle of the viewfinder, instead of random objects that the camera selects. The camera will automatically focus on things that are in the center. If you want to focus on something that is on the side of a frame, click the exposure button half-way to focus on the subject, and - continuing to hold the button - move the camera so the subject is where you want it to be, then press the exposure button the rest of the way. This means your subject is now on the side of the picture, but still in focus.
This is what the center-weighted icon looks like, you can usually change it on the menu screen.
Hopefully this has helped everybody a little bit to understand their cameras better and will give you the results you like. I always edit my pictures in Adobe Photoshop after, by adjusting Levels and sharpening a bit, but even if you don't do that, you should be able to get pretty good results once you master how to use your camera. It's not usually the camera's fault that the pictures don't turn out how you like, it's usually that people don't understand the settings and how to use them propperly.
Any more questions, just ask and I'll try to give you an answer.
Happy snapping!
^..^
Linear Mode
