Get perfect shots for your marketing materials

A digital camera is handy to take shots for company brochures, newsletters, ads or other marketing materials. But other than pointing and shooting — and crossing your fingers — you may not know how to produce good quality shots that will make your materials look as professional as they should be.

If you’re not careful, you could have shots that are badly composed, poorly lit or too low-resolution to use in your printed piece. Follow our tips for better digital photos and you’ll get great-looking shots that will make your materials sparkle.

High-res means high-quality

If you haven’t purchased a digital camera yet, make sure to get the highest resolution you can afford. Prices are continually falling, so you may be able to get a better camera than you thought you could.

Cameras are rated by megapixels (one million pixels). A pixel (PICture ELement) is the smallest element of a digitized image. These small squares of light make up your photo. The higher the resolution, the more pixels the camera uses.

To produce usable shots, you need to know a few things about resolution:

• Shoot at your camera’s highest resolution setting — It gives you plenty of pixels in case you need to crop or reduce the photo. You can’t enlarge it without losing quality. (Increasing the number of pixels once the image is on your computer serves only to make the file bigger. It doesn’t increase the quality.) If you shoot “big,” then you can always reduce it for low-resolution uses such as the Web.
• Buy a bigger card — The memory cards that come with digital cameras typically offer very little storage space.  For a 3-megapixel camera, get at least a 128 MB card, 256 MB for 4-megapixels and 512 MB for 5 megapixels and bigger so you’ll have plenty of space. A 2-megapixel camera is probably too low-resolution for most marketing use.
• Use 300 dpi for print — Digital photo dimensions are different than dimensions for print. A high-end digital camera picture of 1600 x 1200 pixels at a camera’s default resolution of 72 dpi (dots per inch), for example, would output at over 22″ x 16″. However, at 300 dpi (the resolution used for print), that same image would output at 5.33″ x 4″, or about the size of a postcard.
• Save it — If you edit your photos, always keep a copy of the original. If you’re sending the photos to a designer or an agency, don’t bother editing them.

Compose yourself

How you arrange your subject in the frame, called composition, can make your photo either dull or dramatic.

• Level with your subject — When taking people photos, try to shoot at their eye level, or from a little above, to grab a viewer with their gaze. For kids, you’ll need to kneel.
• Watch the background — A plain background shows off your subject best and is less distracting. Make sure no poles and other objects are growing out of your subject’s head. And that your subject isn’t the same color as the background. For portraits, don’t stand against a wall. Have the subject take a step forward to avoid a harsh shadow.
• Fill the frame — Sometimes our minds exaggerate what we see through the camera, giving you photos with huge areas of wasted space. Get in close by taking a step or two toward your subject. Think about how the photo will be used and shoot just what you want to show. For a mug shot, you don’t need to shoot someone’s entire body.
• Lock the focus – If your subject is off-center, the camera may focus on the background instead of your subject, since most auto-focus cameras focus on only what’s in the center. Move your subject back to the center, press the shutter button halfway down to lock the focus and then recompose your shot so the subject is off-center. Press the button all the way to take the shot. Blurry shots are impossible to fix later.
• Use picture modes — In “Auto” mode, the camera selects the proper exposure, focus and flash, and is good for general picture taking. To achieve superior effects, you’ll need to explore other modes. Use “portrait” for single subjects such as a person, “landscape” for expansive subjects that are far away such as mountains and skylines, “sports/action” for capturing subjects that are moving quickly and “night” for low-light conditions (you may need to use a tripod).
• Use a tripod — Digital cameras have a delay between pressing the shutter button and the camera taking the photo. The act of pressing the button can move the camera during this delay and create blurry images. A tripod offers a stable support, especially with a remote or shutter-release cable.
• Direct your subjects — Don’t just take photos passively (unless they’re supposed to be candid). Take charge by choosing the right location and props and arranging people to get the best shot.
• Keep shooting — Remember, you don’t have to pay for unwanted prints. So take more shots than you think you need to give yourself plenty of chances to get a good shot.

Watch the light

Understand how lighting affects your photo and you’ll produce great shots.

• Light it up — In general, you’ll need more light than you think. Try for plenty of ambient light, but avoid bright light that casts harsh shadows. When outdoors, take photos early or late in the day to create more texture. Shooting at noon will create ugly shadows beneath noses and brows. In addition, avoid shadows falling across your subject. Try to shoot from the same lighting condition your subject is in.
• Use flash outdoors — If the background is lit more than your subject, set your camera to “fill flash” mode (or “flash” mode if your camera doesn’t have a “fill flash” mode or you’re more than five feet away). In this mode, your camera exposes for the background first, then adds just enough flash to illuminate your subject.
• Know your flash’s range — Most digital camera flashes reach only 10-15 feet, so make sure not to stand too far away. But if you’re too close, your subject could get blasted and look washed out. Check your manual for your camera’s flash range.
• Set white balance — Different types of light bring out different colors in your subject. For example, fluorescent lights make things look slightly green/yellow. Use the white balance setting on your camera to correct for this.

Your camera has lots of settings. Experiment to see what effects they have. Remember, you’re not paying for any wasted shots.

Cameras don’t make beautiful images. Photographers do. You may not win any contests, but with a little knowledge and a little practice, you can create digital photos that are picture perfect.

Need better results? Digital photography is just one business communications solution we’ve provided over the past 25 years. To explore some innovative ways to get great photos, e-mail Matt Harlow or call 800-800-9547.

Ideas are our product. We work to analyze your markets, isolate your key brand benefits and send clear, focused messages right to your target audience. Messages that build your brand image and achieve what you’re really looking for … measurable results. We call it Communication with insight.^sm