Making Digital Photo Books Professional
Dom Donaldson is a photography expert.
Find out more about Digital Photo Books at http://www.cewe-photoworld.co.uk/photobook/photo-book.php
Photography is one of the most popular hobbies in the world, especially since digital technology made it easier than ever to take a professional looking picture. Not only is it possible to get a digital SLR that produces to the same quality as a film version, but there are point and shoot digital cameras, and of course, just about every mobile phone comes with a camera too. This is a brief guide to taking high quality photos worthy of publishing in digital photo books.
There are many reasons to compile digital photo books. Some people use them to create family albums, others use them as a portfolio and they can even be used as a brochure to display a range of products that have been made. For photography enthusiasts though, it is a wonderful way to preserve the best pictures in a book, either for posterity, or with a view to being published.
It is tempting to keep hold of every photo taken when working digitally, but to create an interesting album of images, it is essential that a ruthless approach is taken. Do not be scared to hit delete for any picture that does not meet the aesthetics or standards you expect, and don’t be scared of enlisting a bit of post production help to get the images perfect for printing.
Experiment with lighting and a variety of angles to not only produce a diverse body of work, but to expand the range of styles in a repertoire. The more that can be achieved through the action of taking a picture, the more professional taking the right picture will feel. Use the automated settings on the camera to adjust white balance and to get the right focal range for the subject. High end cameras save this information with the image, so it is possible to analyse the ‘feel’ of favourite pictures with a view to capturing something similar manually.
To create digital photo books that have an overall aesthetic tone, the images may need grading. This process should be viewed the same as processing film in a dark room. The initial picture has been taken, now the fun can really begin. Under or over exposing the picture, changing the contrast and saturation can all lead to a photograph with its own unique finger print. Alternatively, this process can be used to make sure that each image in the album has an even tone in keeping with the other images.
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