Photography Tips

Improving Holiday Photos

The holidays are loaded with opportunities to get candid shots of special significance to you and those close to you. This year, make a special effort to capture the spirit of your unique holiday celebrations. The year-end holidays traditionally provide us with meaningful subjects, decorative background, and interesting lighting conditions; all ingredients for spectacular candid shots and spontaneous portrait sessions.

Candid Shots

For good candid shots be unobtrusive. Let the action unfold naturally. Catch a genuine look of surprise or pleasing smile as they happen. Find a good position where you can wait for the right moment, then raise the camera and get a quick shot. Put the camera aside until you are forgotten, then do it again. Don't try to stop the action while you take a picture. Your subjects will be happier for not being interrupted and your photographs will be more genuine. Leave the 'say cheese' smiles for someone else.

Informal Group Portraits

Don't miss the opportunity for informal group portraits. This is often the only time of year when an entire family can be assembled for a group shot. Don't be shy in organizing the group shots.

Those who grumble and resist now, will undoubtedly be asking you for copies later. People have a tendency to close their eyes when they smile. Take several duplicate shots to make sure that you get at least one good one.

Pay particular attention to special groupings of people. Consider the significance to a grandparent in a photograph of all their grandchildren together.

Watch the background and use seasonal decoration to your advantage. For instance, center your subjects in front of a decorated fireplace or window. 'Center' is the key word here, half a fireplace or part of a window will cause your photos to look off balance.

Remember people who are not present by taking some shots that will be of interest to them. Later in the year you will have something special to slip into a letter or card.

Available Light

Candles, colored lights, and fireplaces are light sources that will add interest to your photographs. Try a timed exposure or combine flash with existing light for interesting effects. You might get a shot you can use on personalized greeting cards next year. Don't be afraid to experiment. Bracket the exposure if possible to increase your chances of success. It is always fun to see how these sots turn out. If it doesn't work, no harm done and you might learn something from the experience.

Enhancing Your Outdoor Photos:

Tired of dark eyes and harsh shadows in your outdoor pictures? Most point and shoot cameras available (both film and digital) have the ability to override the auto flash systems. One would normally think that when you are taking pictures outside you have plenty of light. Well you do, it just isn't enough in the right places.
If you are taking pictures with the subject looking into the sun, you'll often get that "squinty" look. If you shoot with the sun at the left or right side of the subject, you get really harsh shadows. If it is directly overhead you get shadows under the eyes and chin. Last if you shoot with the sun behind the subject, you normally get a flat, underexposed look that is not very flattering.
The answer is simple...just turn on the flash. There's usually a "flash on" position on most cameras. With the fill flash on, what you get is a highlight in the eyes and a reduction in the shadows on the face. But you'll need to stay close to your subject for the fill flash to have any benefit. Most flashes won't reach out very far—usually only about three to four feet. The result will be even more pleasing if they have a hat on. Then their eyes are not squinting from the sun and the flash takes out the shadow.

What about cloudy days you ask? Well it even works then too. The fill flash adds some normal color back into the person's face by eliminating the blue look from the overcast sky and puts that sparkle (highlight) in their eyes.

Photo Scanning Help

Scanning photos can be frustrating if you don't know how to get good results. Here's the basics for scanning your photos for use on our photo card products.

Use a good original

A good original is still important in determining the final quality of the scanned image. Even if your scanning software has tools to improve image quality, they work only up to a point. Images that are out of focus, dirty, or poorly exposed may never look great-no matter how much time you/we spend retouching them.

Keep your scanner clean

Make sure your scanner glass is clean before you scan images. This way, you don't pick up flecks of dust along with the image when you scan. To clean the scanner glass, use alcohol on a lint-free cloth and clean the glass carefully.
About resolution also known as dpi (dots per inch)

For image reproduction at 100% (exact same size as the original), set the dpi setting to 300. Many scanners are preset to 72 or 150 dpi so be sure to check and make sure you have it set to scan at the proper resolution. The main photo for your card should be scanned at 400 dpi or greater if your subject is small within the print (a face/head smaller than a silver dollar). It's always better to provide a scan that is too large than one that is not large enough.

Scanning the image

Wipe prints with a clean, soft cloth to remove dust and fingerprints before placing in your scanner. Place your photos on the scanning surface and make sure they are not crooked. Run a preview scan of the photograph to determine the scanning area. Next use the selection tool to create a box around the perimeter of the photograph. This tells the scanner to only scan the selected area, thus speeding up scan time and reducing file size (no need to waste disk space scanning an entire page for a 3x5 inch photograph). You're now ready for a final scan of the image.

Saving your images

Do not crop or alter the scans in any way. Our graphic designer will do any necessary retouching, cropping, and color correcting for you. Save your images in jpg format at the highest quality possible.

Does it look ok?

All scanners will interpret color differently. The age and quality of your scanner will greatly affect the final scan. We commonly receive scans from customers where the colors are greatly skewed such as orange skin tones, underexposed shadows, highlights blown out, etc. If your scans don't look right on your monitor, they probably won't look right when printed either. Your best bet is to just mail us your prints. If you're in a big hurry, you'll want to overnight them using FedEx, UPS, etc.

If in doubt...

Lastly, if you have doubts about your scanning abilities, please just mail us the prints for your card. We charge nothing to scan your photos for you. (84 Villa Dr, Clearfield UT 84015)

Photo Dos and Don'ts

Do send us more than one photo, if you are having trouble choosing. We can take a look and determine which will give you the best finished product.

Don't edit your photos at home! We have all the capabilities to edit your photos in any way that you would like, so please upload the original high resolution photos. If you'd like to email cropped versions, so we can see how you'd like them, that is great, but please upload the original files!

Don't forget to look at the orientation of the photos required for your design! If the design calls for a vertical photo, and you email a horizontal photo, it will not fit in well.

Don't send low resolution photos. You will be disappointed with the final print quality! Even if you love the photo, the photo will not appear the same as it does to you on the web or on your computer. If your photos will not print well, we will let you know when we receive them, and request others. Photos saved from web galleries are typically low resolution, and camera phone photos are not suitable.