When the I Heart Snapping team attended the BritMums Live conference a few weeks ago, it was definitely fair to say that the session we were most looking forward to was Julia Boggio‘s session on Advanced Blogging Photography. As two enthusiastic amateurs at best, we were hoping to learn some great tips from a proper professional photographer, and the session definitely didn’t disappoint as it was crammed full of useful tips for improving blog photography.

Julia started by talking about the misconceptions that great cameras take great photos; they don’t, its the photographer that does that. Now how many times have you heard those exact words here? She described a photographer as someone who paints with light and that it is light that makes a great photo and gives images interest. She explained that there are three different types of light that you are dealing with when taking photographs, and that how you use these affects the final photograph that you take and the effect it has.

First there is ‘key’ light which is the main and strongest light upon your subject. There is ‘fill’ light which is what lifts shadows and can be created by bouncing ambient light from a reflective surface. And finally there is ‘hair’ light which is an accent or back light which separates a subject from its surrounds and gives an image depth. These different light sources can be differently located for different photos or subjects. Being aware of them and how you use them can be the difference between a great shot, an okay shot and a rubbish shot.

If you’ve been reading the photography posts here on I Heart Snapping then you will have heard us banging on about how photography is generally most attractive in natural sunlight. Sunlight can be your ‘key’ light if if is in front of your subject (and behind you) or your ‘hair’ light if it is behind them (and you are shooting towards the sun). The sun’s rays travel in straight lines, so you do have to be careful about the effect that shadow can have on your photos and Julia suggested that when photographing people in natural light that it’s a good idea to get them to move their face around to make sure you avoid shadows. It can also be a good idea to use a reflector to bounce sunlight so that it also becomes your fill light.

She gave the simple tip of taking a piece of white paper outside using it to gage where the best light is; which is something I’ve tried out since and have found really useful just to bring my attention back to thinking about the best light and best angle for my photo. I definitely take more notice of how shadows affect my photography now and I have found myself repositioning things and using white cushions as reflectors to manipulate the light when I shoot.

Julia showed how she made a simple lighting box or tent using tracing paper, foam board and a ceiling tile, and how she had used it to photograph some garlic. She demonstrated how excluding light and using compact mirrors and carrier bags as diffusers can create a still life full of texture. If you take a lot of still life type photos she also said told us that having your key light come from the side creates far better texture. She also showed us how the position of light in portraiture can completely change the final look; ‘narrow’ shooting means the light comes from the side and you shoot into the shadowed side of the face, whereas with ‘broad’ shooting the light comes from the same direction as the camera and you shoot the lit part of the face. The key with portraits is that ‘narrow’ shooting is far more slimming and flattering on the face. So that’s something to remember next time you have your picture taken; make sure the light is to one side.

The whole talk was crammed full of examples of how to use everyday items like lamps, white cushions and a black dress to play with the light and create different looks with the overriding theme being that you have to play around to find what works. Add light, take it away, move it, bounce it around; it will all affect the resulting photo is different ways and you can’t learn quite how it will unless you try. Oh and demonstrating her opening point perfectly, every single image that Julia had taken and shown us had been taken on her iPhone. I think it would be fair to say that this left everyone feeling pretty impressed and also confident that it really isn’t the kit when it comes to great blog images, but what you do with it that counts.

It was while ago now that we first talked to you about a new feature we were planning on starting called I Heart My Edit. But today we are here with the first ever I Heart My Edit; a feature which we hope will see some of our lovely readers getting involved and showing off what they can do.

So what is I Heart My Edit? It is basically a chance to learn about how people have managed to achieve certain affects with their photo editing. We are providing an original photograph and then asking people to edit it however they would like and simply let us know what they did.

This week, it’s our first time. So the I Heart Snapping team are editing this time. But next time it could be you. We were really impressed with all the people offering to take part when we first mentioned I Heart My Edit, rest assured your details are all safely in a spreadsheet and we WILL be getting in contact.

So without further ado, there is the first I Heart My Edit…

Original Image

A daisy photo taken on a Nikon D5000 with an 18-55 lens with macro filter.

Katie’s Edit

I basically used idarkroom app and added the cross process filter.  This made it really green so I wanted to dull it down a little.  I used the Photoshop Express App to slightly adjust the contrast (to make it look more dream like).  Finally I added a white border to bring out the vibrant colour of the petals.

Lucy’s Edit

I used Camera+ first of all to crop the image so that it obeyed the rule of thirds a bit more, and I applied the clarity scene filter. I then used BeFunky to edit it further, by using the vibrance filter and I added the grunge1 border to it to frame it and finish it off.

We both went for phone apps to edit with, just to prove that you don’t need fancy expensive editing software to make your images look lovely.

If you haven’t already been in touch with us and you want to be involved, then let us know.

You’ve got your camera. You want to take good photographs. You want to learn about what your camera can do. You want to be good at getting a great shot. You have absolutely no idea where to start.

Who nodded along? I know I did. And they are statements that we hear a lot.

I have always said that I’m nothing more than an enthusiastic amateur, but I do like to think that I am getting better all the time. I am learning about my camera. I’m getting good photographs that I love more and more. But the great thing is that there is always something new to learn.

Here are some tips for absolute beginners, to get you started on the road to taking photos which make you proud.

Use what you’ve got

It can be really easy to get suckered into spending a lot of money thinking that it will take better pictures. It won’t. YOU are the thing driving that camera and it’s you that matters. Yes, a fancy camera will give you more control over certain elements of your photo. But I’d you are starting out using any camera will be good enough. The resolution may not be so good but it’s the art of actually taking the photograph that matters. If you never use your camera phone or your little point and shoot camera to take pictures, then what makes you think that buying a fancy camera will make you suddenly start snapping?
I have always taken lots of photos. And I used to get along very well with a little Sony Cybershot camera for a long time. In many ways it was a ton more practical than the big camera I lug around now. But by the time I got a DSLR I was already in the habit of using a camera a lot. It was when I found my point and shoot was restricting the sorts of photos I wanted to take that I bought a DSLR. I was also in a better position to buy a DSLR because I knew better what it was that I wanted.
What I’m saying is don’t spend money if you don’t need to, because an expensive camera won’t get you better pictures if you don’t know how to use it. The same goes for accessories and additional kit; don’t buy them when you’re starting out. You’ll have a much better idea of the kit that you might want once you and your camera are old friends.

Experiment and enjoy the learning process

There is a mountain of available information online to help you learn about your camera and it’s settings and it can be really overwhelming. But nothing will help you learn like actually playing around with your own camera.
If you do own a DSLR check out our post on the modes and settings on your camera. Read it, take away one or two things and then go and play. You won’t learn everything about your camera in one day, so just think about a photography opportunity you have coming up and try out one new thing with your camera. You’ll soon build up a knowledge and repertoire of things you can do.
If you are using a point and shoot then check out the pre-programmed settings and try taking the same photo with each setting. You’ll get a really good idea of each programmed setting will do simply by going through this process.
Just play and don’t be afraid to have a go. Obviously if you really want to capture a specific image that is time sensitive then that’s not the time to muck around with your camera. But when I first started out using manual on my camera, I would take a few in auto first to guarantee I had the picture I wanted, and then I’d start fiddling with settings.

Photograph random things

Just because you can! Digital photography means that it is far easier and cheaper to just have a go because you don’t have to print (or even show anyone) your little experiments. So don’t overlook everyday objects as photo opportunities, even if it’s just an excuse to experiment.

Write a photo wish list

I have one and I’m adding to it all the time. It’s basically a list of photos you would like to take. I had ‘photo in long grass’ and ‘photo with bluebells’ on my list until recently, but I recently got to tick them off the list. I want to take more pictures with bubbles and water. I want to take some pictures in silhouette.
The best place to look for inspiration is Pinterest, or you might find inspiration on blogs or in magazines. But I find it really helps me to have some plans and ideas for photos that I’d like to take. It gives you something to aim for on a boring, empty weekend too.

Take photos

It goes without saying that your photography won’t get any better while you sit and watch TV. So get your camera out, whatever camera that may be and take some pictures. Try to challenge yourself to take one every day or every week.
Setting yourself little challenges keeps you learning and practising the skills that you are learning. And blogging is a great excuse to get better. There are so many photo linkys out there which give you simple inspiration or ideas for taking more photographs.

So pick up your camera and you might just learn a thing or two.

I often get people asking how to add text to photos.  Well today we are going to let you into a little secret and that secret is the Labelbox app.

Labelbox is perhaps the most simple app in the world to use and you can create some really great looking text for your photo captions.

It really is as easy as that.  Swipe the tape across the screen to place it where you want, type the text and voila….a really easy way of putting funky text on to photos.  Here is us playing around to give you some examples of the labels you can use.

Best of all?  Labelbox is completely free.  You get eleven free labels with the free version but if you want any of the others you will have to pay for it.  However there is a wide range with the free version as shown above.

We would definitely recommend Labelbox as a quick and easy way to write on your photos.  As always if you use it on any of your blog posts let us know and we will RT your link.

Have you ever taken a photo and then looked at it only to realise that it has a yellowy or blue tint to it?  However when taking the photo the light and the scene looked completely normal?  The reason for this is that images taken in different lights have a different colour or temperature to them.  E.g if you take a photo in artificial lighting it may come across as having a slightly blueish tint.  There is a large range of temperatures and colours and this range is known as the Kelvin Scale.

White Balance is an important part of photography that people sometimes neglect to take into account.  Put simply the reason we adjust white balance is to get the colours in our images as accurate as possible.

The naked eye won’t notice these slight changes in colour, but although our cameras are pretty damn smart, they sometimes don’t have the capabilities of making these adjustments automatically- it might need a little bit of help to get it spot on.  In cooler light, blue or green, you may need to tell the camera to warm things up a bit and in warmer light, yellow or orange, you may need to tell it to cool the colour down.

Many DSLR cameras have special presets meaning that you can adjust the white balance really easily.  Below are the settings on my Nikon camera:

Auto – this is where the camera makes a best guess on a shot by shot basis. It generally is pretty good and can quite accurately estimate the colour and temperature, however for trickier lights I find it struggles.

Tungsten – this mode is usually symbolized with a little bulb and is for shooting indoors, especially under bulb lighting. It generally cools down the colors in photos.

Fluorescent – this compensates for the ‘cool’ light of fluorescent light and will warm up your shots  Really good for artificial lighting such as those horrible strip lights you get in certain places like schools.

Direct Sunlight – This is basically a ‘normal’ white balance setting.  It generally will make the light slightly warmer.

Cloudy – this setting generally warms things up a touch more than ‘direct sunlight’ mode.

Flash – the flash of a camera can be quite a cool light so in Flash WB mode you’ll find it warms up your shots a touch.

Shade – the light in shade is generally cooler (bluer) than shooting in direct sunlight so this mode will warm things up slightly.

It is definitely worth playing around with the white balance settings and not just keeping it on auto as you may find that you like some of the results more.  I shot my little piggy here at around 3pm in the afternoon in the house with a window behind me.

While the ‘Auto’ setting is ok, I much prefer the Fluorescent setting, it just makes the photo slightly warmer and more appealing.  This is just an example but I have seen many shots that would have looked so much nicer if the white balance wasn’t set to auto.  Auto is ok and good for snapshots, but if you want to get more creative with your photography then it is definitely worth having a play round with it.  Be brave and take it off auto!

Access your white balance menu by going into your camera’s menu settings.  The settings available will differ from camera to camera but just have a play around with it and try it out in different lights when you have a bit of time.  You will be amazed the difference it can make to your photos.

We’re all about giving you tips and pointers to improve your photography on I Heart Snapping, and we’ve loved all the great feedback to all our photography related posts and people wanting to be involved with I Heart My Edit. But we also want to showcase some real talents; so we will be introducing you to some lovely photographers and asking them to share their tips and let us all know how they go started and what they love about doing what they do.

For our first ever ‘Leave It To The Pros’ post we have Chloe Bridge. Some of you may know her from Chloe Witters where she blogs all about her life with her adorable little boy Arlo. If you haven’t already done so, then check it out. Expect lots of lovely photographs! Chloe’s photography on her blog have launched a whole new career for her, as she has recently ventured into the world of portrait photography by setting up her own business Chloe Bridge Photography. She very kindly agreed to take some time out of being a mummy and running her own photography business, to let us ask her some questions. So here she is…

First off, can you tell us a bit about you and how you started out in photography?

I am a family and lifestyle photographer based in London. I started my own photography business just a couple of months ago and I’m so pleased to be able to do what I love and, at the same time, call it a career.

I’ve always been interested in photography. I remember the excitement of getting my first film camera when I was 7. Just before my 18th birthday, I announced that I wanted to be a photographer, and so my uncle very generously gave me his old SLR as my birthday present. I learnt so much by playing around with that camera. It served me well throughout university, and I dabbled with a bit of event photography for the University newspaper.

After I gained my English degree, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in photography. I luckily landed a job at a family portrait studio and gained invaluable training and practise with posing, lighting, and working with children of all ages. After that job, I moved into the post production side of photography and worked for one of London’s leading retouching houses.

Portrait photography has always been my ‘thing’. I just love the challenge of nailing that perfect expression and capturing each person’s unique personality. I started a blog whilst on maternity leave, a place where I could share the hundreds of photos I was taking of my son. Off the back of the blog, I started getting requests from friends to photograph their families. More referrals came from friends of friends after seeing my images, and my photography business was born from there.

What is in your kit bag? What camera(s) do you use? What accessories wouldn’t you be without?

I use a Canon 40d. My favourite lenses for portraits are my 50mm 1.8 and 28mm 1.8. My not-so-secret weapons are a white noise machine for newborn shoots, and bubbles for toddlers and older babies.

What do you love most about photography?

Images play such a huge part in preserving memories. A cherished photo lasts longer than a lifetime and will be passed down through generations to come. I can’t think of a way to write this without sounding incredibly cheesy, but to play a part in creating those treasured family memories is pretty awesome.

Can you tell us how you like to edit your photographs? What software do you use? Are there any particular things that you like doing with photographs?

I use a mixture of Lightroom and Photoshop when editing. Lightroom is my absolute favourite (if I could marry a software program…), but there are some things that can only be done in Photoshop. I like to edit my images in a clean, bright style, especially with babies and families – timeless classics that won’t date with age.

Which blogs do you think use fantastic photography?

Gregarious Peach - http://www.gregariouspeach.com/

Georgia is an Australian photographer and founder of the popular Facebook group ‘Documenting Delight’ – my go-to place to see some excellent photo-a-day child photography.  Georgia is brilliant at incorporating stories and conversations alongside her images, in doing so she captures some fantastic images of her two children.

Enjoying the Small Things - http://www.kellehampton.com/

Kelle lives in Florida with her two highly photogenic daughters. I found this hugely popular blog when I was pregnant with my son and I’ve been addicted ever since. My gosh does this lady have a picture perfect life (all down to her amazing photography!)

I read Inspire Me Baby and Let the Kids Dress Themselves for great tips and inspiration for family shoots.
http://inspiremebaby.com/
http://letthekids.com/

Share your three favourite photographs and why you love them. (We appreciate that it’s hard to choose only three!!!)

My favourites change every week, so this was a really tough one!

1. This is one of my favourite shots from the photoshoot that launched my photography business. As that shoot was such a landmark for me, I think it will always hold a place in my favourites.

2. This image of a yawning six day old newborn never fails to make me smile

3. Lastly, I couldn’t help including a shot of my own boy. I took this when he was 14 months old, and it perfectly sums him up at that age – headores his trains.

What tips can you give to our readers?

One comment I hear all the time is, “I’d love to learn more about my camera, but I haven’t got a clue how to use it in manual mode”.  If that sounds like you, then this is my advice:

Read up on shutter speeds, aperture and ISO (this link provides a simple explanation: http://lifehacker.com/5814173/basics-of-photography-your-cameras-manual-settings), and then set yourself a challenge to take a photo every day for a set period of time. A week, a month, or even a year – the longer the better!

Not only will you get to know your camera very quickly, you will learn to see your home from a photographer’s perspective (where to get the best light at which times of day, etc), and manual mode will fast become second nature. Most important of all, it will get you in the habit of picking up your camera on a regular basis, and you will have some amazing photographic memories to show for it. I started a year long photo-a-day project in January (you can check it out on my blog: http://www.chloewitters.wordpress.com), and it’s been the best challenge I’ve ever set myself!

Great tips and food for thought. Get your cameras out people, because you won’t learn how to use them if they are safely in their camera bag.

Thank-you to Chloe for being involved and sharing her tips and beautiful favourite photographs. You can follow Chloe on Twitter as @khloeee so stop by and say hi there or on her blog.

I am sure many houses up and down the UK are looking forward to the long bank holiday weekend, after all it is rare that we get two days off in a row.  Even if you aren’t in the UK, I am sure you have seen something about the Jubilee celebrations- HRH Queen Elizabeth has been on the throne for 60 years.  Wowee.  We are looking forward to seeing some lovely photos of what you got up to on the long weekend but without further ado here are my favourite links of this week.

We love these photos that Lauren took at the beach.  So cute and doesn’t it make you want to go and visit the seaside?

We love this post from Charlotte, how cute is her birthday party theme?  And I love that she had a photo shoot for the bears too!

Found this blog via Kelly’s and we love it.  Check out Happy Jax if you get the chance.

It is the last week to vote in the Mad Blog Awards.  If you fancy voting for Mummy Daddy and Me makes Three or Dear Beautiful Boy we would be so grateful.

We are all about sharing the tutorial love- Mammasaurus has started doing tips to help you too- we really like her first post on how to use google web fonts on your blog.

If you ever see any blog posts that you think our readers would love be sure to link them below.
Now do you want to join in the easiest peasiest photo linky in the land?  Just link up a photo or photos that you are especially proud of.  It can literally be anything.  And do make sure you share the blog love and comment on others too

While we make no claims at all to be experts at photography- in fact far from it, we are learning all the time too, we DO know what we like and what products and pieces of equipment we can’t live without.  There are literally millions of photography products out there and people all like different things- it is worth experimenting to see what you love the most.  Here are our top pieces of kit that we can’t live without…

Camera.

Obviously an essential part to being a photographer is your camera.  You will find that most people have an opinion on the two biggest camera brands- Nikon and Canon.  You generally either sway one way or the other.  Both myself and Lucy are Nikon girls- I have the  Nikon D5100  and Lucy has the Nikon D5000.  These are both mid-level DSLR’s but you can get cheaper entry level cameras.  One that I had a look at in the shop that was a little cheaper was the Nikon D3100 .  The best thing to do is go to a specialist camera shop and talk to the staff about your requirements- however always check the online prices as they often are a lot cheaper.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have the money to buy a DSLR, there are some fabulous compact camera’s out there and even phones nowadays can give some fantastic shots.

Tripod.

If you want to get into photography seriously then one thing you can’t be without is a tripod.  By using a tripod you will help eliminate camera shake and overall your photos will look sharper and more in focus.  Plus it means that you can occasionally get in the photo too.

Both Lucy and I use the Joby GorillaPod SLR-Zoom tripod, if you haven’t heard of these little fella’s before then they are definitely worth a look.  They have flexible, bendy legs that mean you can hang it from so many different places- I have hung mine from trees, my bed posts (not for that reason!) and I have also placed in lots of different positions.  It really is a great bit of kit that allows you to get some really creative and unique shots, and helps you unleash your imaginative side.  However there are lots of different types of tripod that have different functions, they can cost from very little to hundreds of pounds.

Remote Control.

I cannot live without my remote control, it comes in handy so much when you have a cheeky toddler.  It means that I can set up the shot, and entertain her while taking photos at the same time- I really recommend buying one.  Mine was so cheap, I have the NEEWER Wireless IR Remote Control which was only £2, but it does the job really well.  However you can spend more if you want too.

Camera Bag.

It may sound like a silly bit of kit but it is so important to have a good camera bag as it is essential to keep your kit in tip top condition.  There are so many nice bags out there, and you can even use one as a fashion accessory if you were that way inclined.  I just have a Lowepro bag, it isn’t particularly fancy but it is small enough for me to lug about and take everywhere with me.  If I had the money I would buy a Kelly Moore bag as I think they are lovely.

Lenses.

If you are going to get serious about photography and you have a DSLR, it may be time to think about lenses.  We will be talking a lot more about lenses over the coming months but you can literally spend thousands of pounds on them.  However you will notice a huge difference in any lens you buy- you can buy zoom lenses, macro lenses and fisheye lenses- there are literally hundreds to choose from.  We will explain in a series of posts what different lenses will do, but it is important to bear in mind when buying a camera that the kit lens isn’t necessarily going to give the best shots.

There are so many products out there, and as your photography progresses and you get more in to it there are literally so many other pieces of equipment you can buy.  However in the first instance I would say that those are the bits of kit I have found most useful.

Do you have anything that you can’t live without when it comes to photography?  Be sure to let us know below.

I thought in our little composition master class this week that I’d talk about photographing children. I spend the vast majority of my time photographing my little boy and feel like I’ve learnt quite a lot about this in my time as a parent. If you read and take on board a couple of these little tips, then I can pretty much guarantee you will improve your pictures of children.

Children aren’t easy to photograph, and the difficulties of the task change as they change. But get it right and photographing children is not only easy but really fun, and gives you very cute results. What parent doesn’t want adorable photographs of their offspring? But this doesn’t mean that you need to pay someone to do it for you. You can get great pictures all by yourself.

I don’t profess to be a pro by any stretch of the imagination. But I do take an awful lot of pictures of children and these are the things that work for me.

Get Down To Their Level

By taking yourself and your camera down to their eye level, you enter their world and see it as they do. They are far more likely to want to interact with you and your camera if you are at a level where they can see everything that’s going on. Let them see your camera to get them interested, with older children let them take a photo themselves.

Young babies are especially tricky to photograph because they are so still. The temptation is often to photograph them from above as they lie on a mat or blanket, but lying down on that level with them will get you better and more natural shots. There is a place for photos ‘from above’ as they instantly make newborns look tiny and fragile if that’s what you’re after, but they will definitely have more personality in pictures taken on their level.

As they get older there are new challenges to photographing them, but working on their level is always worth doing. If you photograph them at or below their eye level but can distract them into looking up, you’ll get pictures where they look innocent and thoughtful. Smiley pictures where they look right at the camera will look playful. Pictures where they are looking down at a toy or an object will make them look contemplative and focused. So consider these things and thing about what you want to achieve.

  Avoid Fakeness

Posing and fake emotion doesn’t read very well in pictures, especially pictures of children. So remove “Say cheese” from your vocabulary starting from now. It is far better to get children really engaged in an activity and take natural shots of them enjoying themselves, or to get them to shout and really laugh than to get a photo with a fake ‘camera smile’.

Keep Them Still

While newborns can be hard to photograph because they don’t do much, it can be harder still to photograph children as they get bigger and more mobile. Sometimes you just need them to stay still long enough for your photograph but they won’t play ball.

My biggest tip with toddlers is to make them a captive audience… literally! Find some way of keeping them contained and you’ll stand more chance of getting your shot. You may be able to keep them still by handing them a you or by singing a song and doing a crazy dance, but some of my best shots have happened when my son is quite literally stuck somewhere. Like in the bath. Or in his highchair. Laundry baskets are good too. Or toy boxes. I generally find that the novelty of being put inside something means that they’ll stay still that bit longer giving you a better chance of getting a photo.

I’ve found that with photographing bigger children that asking them to do something helps. Starting up a conversation will often do the trick. Tell them you just need them to stay still and answer some questions for you. Then make the questions as silly as possible so that they will relax and smile. Ask them to tell you jokes, to explain what they did this morning. And if in doubt resort to just asking “But why?” to every answer they give.

 Let Them Explore

Children are naturally mobile and inquisitive creatures. If you think about the world from their perspective everything is a new adventure. So while it can be tempting to keep them still for a shot, sometimes ‘if you can’t beat them join them’.

Let them go, let them explore and follow them with your camera in hand. I often find that after taking some more posed shots that I end up liking the natural ones I take afterwards far more.

 Catch Them Unawares

It may just be my personal opinion but I often find that the best photos of children are captured when they don’t know it’s happening. When they are inspecting a piece of carpet fluff, giggling with their friends or about to fall asleep. These little moments are what make up their childhoods and are lovely to capture for posterity.

But in order to catch those moments, you need your camera nearby at all times, with a charged battery ready to go. I never, and I mean NEVER, put my DSLR away in its bag when we are at home. It is always on the side in easy grabbing reach so that I can get the shot if something cute happens. This is why camera phones are so fantastic because they aren’t generally very far from your side. (Having said that, I’m a purist and I hardly ever take photographs using my phone. I’d rather use my camera any day because the better quality and resolution will make them easier to adapt later as needed.)

 Take Lots of Photographs

If you take your children for a professional photo shoot, it will more than likely take an hour, possibly longer. In that hour a photographer will take literally hundreds of photographs. They might change their angle slightly or adapt their camera settings or even completely reposition everyone, but with each time they press the shutter they stand another chance of getting an awesome photograph. After your session they might show you 35-50 shots that made the cut.

They are the pros and they don’t expect to get a perfect shot in a single frame, neither should you.

In an average day I’ll take about 30-40 photos. Yes, everyday! Yes, I am obsessed. Some days it might be less but on days where I am after something specific it might be a lot more than that. On an average day, 3 or 4 shots might be of a standard that I’d use on my blog. Other days I get lucky and get lots of good ones.

But you’ll never get a good shot if you don’t keep clicking.

Go Outside

Photographers amateur and professional alike will bang on about light. But natural light really is best. You’ll get truer colours and better pictures with natural light than you’ll ever get with artificial light.

The sunlight on a child’s face makes for a beautiful simple photograph, whatever it is they are doing with themselves in the shot. And similarly children photograph beautifully in silhouette with the light behind them as they explore. So play around with where the light is in relation to them to get different effects.

I find photographing children really rewarding and really good fun. It can be hard work at times when they would rather play with your camera strap than play along with what you had planned, but the results can be amazing that it’s always worth the effort. My little boy has been the muse which kick started my love of photography and I can’t wait until the day he can look back and remember his childhood through photographs I took.

So grab your camera and get clicking. Take lots, move lots and let children be themselves in front of the camera.

Next on our iphoneography must have list is the fabulous app PictureShow.  

PictureShow is very similar to the typical photo editing apps, but like all the others it has it’s little tricks and functions that mean it is well worth a look.  What I love doing is combining all the different apps to make a really great photo- yes it takes some time but the end results are usually worth it.

There are 5 camera lens which are good fun- including Quad, Vertical Quad and Halfshot.    There are also 45 Styles as well, and they all add a really different dimension to your photos.

Here is our quick guide to PictureShow below.

As mentioned above if you click the big red button on the top right of the screen it allows you to randomly add effects to your photo- it is really good fun and makes your photos look great.  By clicking on the heart on the left it will save it as your own combination if you like it for further pics.

 However the best part about PictureShow I think is the fact that you can access all the styles by clicking the words on the middle at the top.

Overall, I really like PictureShow.  It has lots of different effects and once you get used to it is quite easy to use.  It is up there in the top 5 photo app’s I use and I would recommend it to people who love photo editing.  The app does cost £1.49 but in my opinion it is definitely  worth the money.