Digital Photography

Every family’s got one: A “blinker.” This is the person who, in 9 out of every 10 photos, is captured with eyes closed, having blinked at the exact moment the picture was snapped. Our family, in fact, has more than one (you know who you are).

Some newer digital cameras offer so-called “blink detection,” a feature that alerts you if the camera thinks one of your subjects has closed eyes in a picture you just took. That’s great, but how do you get better results on your next shot? Here are a few things to try:

• Shoot without flash if possible. The bright pop of the flash light is the main cause of the blink reflex, so try to shoot without one. You can pose your subjects near a sunny window, turn on lots of room lights, or, weather permitting, move outside and shoot by daylight.
• Take several shots in a row. If you’re using flash, people’s eyes will be more accustomed to the light burst by the time you get to the third shot, so you’re more likely to get open eyes.
• Consider poses that show your subject looking away from the lens (and flash). You can shoot two subjects looking towards each other, as here. Or you can photograph a single subject engaged in a favorite activity, such as a guitar player with head slightly bent, glancing down and strumming the strings. Not only are subjects less likely to react to the flash light when they’re looking away from it, but the photo still looks natural even if the eyes are slightly closed. As a side benefit, you usually get more interesting pictures than you do with formal, ”look at me and say cheese!” poses.

One of the most common questions I hear at my workshops is “what’s the best way to store all my digital photos?” The answer is easy: Gold, gold, gold. As in, gold-coated, archival CDs or DVDs that are engineered to provide the longest possible life span of your digital memories. You will pay more for the discs than for everyday discs, but the difference made by the gold coating is important to the archival quality.

Why not rely on your hard drive, whether internal or external, or those cute little flash-memory keys? Because, in a nutshell, they fail. They’re mechanical beings, after all, and if you drop them or your system is on during an electrical surge or lighting strike, they’re very easily fried. In fact, drives frequently lay down and die for what appears to be no good reason at all. And don’t even ask me how many times someone has told me that they had all their photos stored on a laptop that was stolen . . .

Nope, what you need is a CD or DVD burner and good quality, archival gold discs. For an extra level of security, burn two copies of each disc and store one at the home of a friend or family member in case yours is hit by fire or flood.

Do your digital-photo prints sometimes appear to be missing part of the original scene? Maybe you snapped a portrait that looked perfect on your camera monitor, for example, but in the 4 x 6-inch print you ordered from your local photo lab, the top of the subject’s head is clipped off. What’s the deal?

The problem has to do with the proportions, or aspect ratio, of your originals and how they translate to standard print sizes.  A 4 x 6-inch print has an aspect ratio of 3:2 because it was originally designed for printing pictures taken on 35mm film negatives, which have a 3:2 aspect ratio. Some digital cameras, especially those of the digital SLR variety, also create 3:2 originals, so photos from those models fit perfectly on a 4 x 6-inch print. But for reasons that aren’t worth getting into, many digital cameras instead produce pictures that have a 4:3 aspect ratio, which means that the photo must be cropped to 3:2 proportions to fit on a 4 x 6-inch print. As an illustration, the image here is a 4:3 original; the red box shows how much of that original could fit on a 4 x 6 print. And whether you start with a 3:2 or 4:3 original, the issue of differing proportions arises if you want to make prints at other traditional sizes – 5 x 7, 8 x 10, and so on.

Long story short: When you’re composing your pictures, leave a good margin of background, or head room, around your subject, as I did for the example, so that you no matter what print size you choose, nothing important is cropped away.

Here’s a holiday gift idea that’s sure to get rave reviews: Create custom DVD slide shows featuring photos of your loved ones. You might give the grandparents a show featuring just the grandkids, for example, or put together a show that follows a single child from birth through kindergarten.

Almost every photo-editing program offers simple tools for getting the job done; you may even be able to build a show and burn it to DVD through programs that come free with your computer, such as iPhoto on the Mac. And for a cool finishing touch, some DVD recorders enable you to print a custom label on the disc. With a DVD burner that offers LightScribe technology, the label image is burned right onto the disc surface. (Check out LightScribe at www.lightscribe.com.) Some inkjet printers, notably some Epson models, also enable you to print color labels on printable DVDs.

Not up to handling all the details on your own? Online photo sites such as Shutterfly (www.shutterfly.com) offer custom photo DVDs, complete with fancy labels and cases, for a small fee. All you do is upload your photos and choose the music, slide transitions, and other slideshow features you want to include.