How to Take Better Family Portraits
05 Jan 2010, written by AlishaIf you love taking pictures but always struggle when taking group or family photos, here are a four tips that can help you.
Avoid the “Police Line Up”
Instead of having everyone line up shoulder to shoulder, try something more natural looking and stagger the people in the picture. For example, you might stagger your family members on the front steps of a porch or on and around boulders near a pond. You should also have some family members standing and others sitting to have varying degrees of height in the picture. By using a staggered pattern this also helps squeeze in more people if you have a large photo to take.
You should also try to avoid having everyone face their bodies directly at the camera. Instead, have there bodies angled slightly and their heads looking directly at the camera. The simple trick of having the individuals at an angle in the picture will help improve the look of your portraits significantly as it’s a common technique used by most professional photographers.
Show Relationships
You can do this with the placement and proximity of the people in the picture. Show family togetherness by spacing relatives close together. And for large group pictures, place couples, siblings or families together in the picture. For example, Grandma and Grandpa might stand next to each, a toddler could be in Mother’s arms, two siblings might have arms slung over each others shoulders. This will not only show the family relationship by grouping immediate family members next to each other but having them stand close to each will also help represent the closeness of the family.
You may also want to consider adding the family pet if they’re calm and will hold still long enough. If you have animals in a picture make sure to raise your shutter speed priority to 1/125 because even the smallest movements will be blurry.
Have the Picture Be Personal
Often family portraits or group photos don’t turn out very good because everyone in the photo looks unnatural. So, your job is to get everyone in the picture to relax enough where they look natural. One way is to use props of something that represents the family or that the family loves doing together. For example, if a family is into baseball you could have each member of the family hold a mitt, ball or bat. Or, if there is a special place the family spends a lot of time like a park or backyard this will also lighten up the mood of the picture.
You also want everyone to get rid of the forced smiles and “frozen” looking bodies. This may be tricky but if you’re good at telling jokes or telling a story this will help lighten the mood. The goal is to distract them enough so they’re smiling naturally. And once you’ve got the smiles and pose you want, tell them when you’re going to take the picture and give them a signal so they know you’re taking the shot.
Lighting
Lighting in a picture may seem like a minor point, but it can “make or break” your shot. Nothing is worse than having everyone posing perfectly and the lighting is bad and the picture turns out too dark or too bright. So, before you start positioning everyone for the picture, know if the lighting will be appropriate for the camera you have. For example, if your camera has a built in flash and you’re inside in a poorly lit room, you may need to find a different location. If you have a built in flash, the best lighting you can get is by going outside.
Outdoors lighting is almost always preferred because it gives more natural tones. And, if you decide to go outdoors avoid taking photos during mid-day as the shadows will be too harsh. The best outdoor light is an overcast or cloudy day or an hour before sunset and after dawn. If this isn’t possible for your group photo then find some shade outdoors that isn’t too dark.
Hopefully these four tips will help you the next time you need to take a family or group picture. Have fun taking pictures and don’t forget to frame them!
Gallery Picture Frames – How to Choose the Right One
03 Jan 2010, written by AlishaWith the addition of some new gallery picture frames to our website, we thought we should review some of the key things you should know when choosing a gallery frame.
The first thing you should consider is the photo or artwork you want to frame. Is the photo or artwork old and irreplaceable? Can it be easily replaced? The reason you need to ask yourself these questions is to decide if you want to protect your photos or artwork with archival products. Archival products help protect your photos and artwork from degrading because they’re made from materials that are acid free. You can minimize this damage by using archival mats or other forms of conservation by using metal picture frames, UV glass and archival mats and backing. It all depends upon the importance of the item you’re framing. For most people, it’s not necessary to have their photos protected. However, if you do need to protect your artwork or photo, the most economical choice is to use metal picture frames with an archival mat.
So the next thing to consider is the style of frame you want. Wood frames can give the photo a more casual and warm look and offer a larger selection of frame styles and colors. Here are just a few examples of wood frames that can add a sense of warmth to your photo. The first one is a Dennis Daniels Dark Walnut Picture Frame that has a nice rich brown color. The second frame, is a simple natural wood picture frame with white mat and a 1/2″ wood molding. This thin wood molding complements almost any photo and is available with or without a mat in various sizes and colors. The third wood gallery frame is a wide wood step molding that adds some extra dimension to this frame. It’s available in four other colors and comes in a wide selection of sizes.
Metal frames, on the other hand, look more modern and contemporary and often come in fewer styles and colors than wood. One of the advantages of metal frames, is that you can have a very narrow frame molding so all you notice is the photo or artwork. Metal photo frames are also a lot less expensive than wood in larger sizes so they make great gallery frames.
If you want to do a comparison between wood and metal gallery frames here is a black wood frame (in the picture on the left) and a black metal frame (on the right). The frame molding on the wood frame is much wider and has a more dominant look compared to the metal frame on the right. With the metal frame, it just provides a black highlight around the photo but doesn’t distract from the picture. Both have a nice look but it just depends upon the look you want for your gallery frame.
The last thing to consider is whether you want to use a mat. Using a mat is highly dependent upon your personal preference, but, in my opinion, almost every gallery style photo or piece of artwork is better displayed in a mat. A mat adds depth to your image and helps to draw the eye towards the photo. Here is just one example of the difference between using a mat and not using one. As you can see, there is a very different look when you compare the frame with a mat vs the frame without a mat. That’s why professional photographers and artists commonly use mats because it beautifully sets off the image. Now, I’m not trying to convince you to use a mat but if you do have an important photo or piece of artwork, a mat makes a big difference.
Despite how nice mats look in gallery frames, people often don’t use mats because they can be difficult to find in the size you want. Most people think that if they want a mat they have to use a custom framer but that’s not true if you need a standard photo size. We offer a variety of gallery frames with mats like our Fineline Metal Picture Frames that come in both standard and custom photo sizes and our Modern Matted Wood Picture Frames that come in 5 different colors and a variety of sizes. Or, if you would like to see our entire selection of gallery picture frames visit our website or give us a call with your questions at 1-800-780-0699.
New Framatic Metal Picture Frames
02 Jan 2010, written by AlishaWe’re happy to announce that we’re now offering Framatic Metal Picture Frames on our website! Framatic Frames has led the picture frame industry for years with their patented easy to use quality metal picture frames.
If you’re a photographer, artist or someone who loves gallery picture frames, once you try one of their easy to use metal picture frames you’ll never want to go back to other metal gallery frames. We’ll be offering their selection of metal picture frames- each with its own unique customer benefit. Here is a quick overview of the Framatic metal frames we’ll be offering:
Fineline Aluminum Metal Picture Frames
These exceptionally thin Fineline aluminum frames have a 1/8″ molding allowing for the focus to be on your photo or artwork. These frames offer easy loading of your photo or artwork and come with a single archival white mat or a double (shadow) archival white mat or no mat at all. They have a patented “Framlok” corner joining system that make it simple to remove one end of the frame and load your image. They also have easy to use spring clips that allow the depth of the frame to be adjusted and hold up to 3/8″ of artwork and matting.
Cirrus Shadow Box Frames or Floating Picture Frames
These versatile Cirrus metal picture frames can be used as both a 1/2″ depth shadow box frame as well as a floating picture frame. These frames have an overall exterior depth of 1 3/16″ and a thin 1/4″ wide aluminum molding. As a shadow box frame they have a full 1/2″ depth interior to hold objects and a 3/16″ archival foam core backing to secure your items and keep them protected. Or, if you’d prefer to use this frame as a floating picture frame, the frame comes with 1/4″ thick mounting tabs so your image can look like it’s floating freely between the glass and the white archival foam core backing.
Superlight Poster Frames
This Superlight poster frame is super light and is truly the best quality poster frame we’ve found. This poster frame is well made and offers the clean style and easy to use function expected with Framatic metal picture frames. The frame comes in either silver or black and has a 1/4″ wide face aluminum molding and comes with a thin styrene front to cover the poster image. You’ll be amazed at the incredible light weight of this frame compared to its overall size.
Tempo Metal Picture Frames
This aluminum Tempo Metal Picture Frame is similar to the Fineline Metal Picture Frame but has a wider aluminum molding. It is popular among artists because it can hold up to a 1/4″ of thick artwork or multiple mats. Unlike most metal frames, this frame’s molding won’t pull away from the back when hung because of it’s spring loaded clips. This easy to use metal frame uses the patented “Framlok” corner joining system so artwork can be easily installed in seconds. This frame comes in gold, silver and black and is available in a wide selection of sizes.
Framatic has been selling quality picture frames for decades and we’re happy to finally be able to offer them to you on our website.
Happy New Year!
01 Jan 2010, written by AlishaHappy New Year!
Here at YourPictureFrames.com we would like to wish you a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!
To help you celebrate the New Year and enjoy your holiday pictures and memories, here is a 10% Your Picture Frames coupon to use during the month of January! We’re offering this discount in appreciation for reading our blog so you’ll only find this coupon here 
Just, enter the following coupon code into the shopping cart when placing your order: HappyNewYear10
Enjoy the coupon and make it a fantastic New Year!
The Photographer’s Ephemeris
23 Dec 2009, written by Rob
While installing Adobe Air applications I came across a wonderful and excellent software planning tool specifically designed to help landscape photographers make the most out of their outdoor photography adventures. App designer and photographer Steven Trainor brings us The Photographer’s Ephemeris.
What exactly is an “ephemeris”?
Simply put, it’s a table or almanac that displays the position of heavenly bodies (sun and moon) for a given date. The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE for short) includes position data for the sun and the moon, the time when both rise and set, as well as a graphical depiction of where they are in the sky at any time of the day. Plus, its all centered around a Google Maps interface, so the data and display adjusts to the latitude and longitude of any location on the planet.
Planning an adventure to Lake Tahoe next summer to do some hiking and photography? Or maybe Paris, or Australia? No problem… by knowing exactly where the sun will be at any time of the day, TPE can help you plan your photography trip down to the minute.
And star-gazers rejoice! TPE makes it super easy to find a moonless night (January 14th, 2010 looks good). Plus one really cool feature shows the Astronomical twilight range on any given day. That is the period of time where less bright deep sky objects like nebulae and galaxies may not be visible. So TPE helps you plan your astronomy and astro-photography adventures, too.
Steven has all the installation instructions and a nice set of tutorials over at the main TPE site. Head on over there and check it out for yourself!