The first article on this page "Seeing the pictures you want" is about being sure the picture you see and want is the picture your camera sees before you push the button.

The second article "Viewing your finished pictures" is about what you see in your finished prints.

The third article "Easy reprints and enlargements" is on a new way to get the extra pictures you need.

Seeing the pictures you want:

I think the most important topic related to enjoying and taking pictures is what we see. This includes what we see before we decide to take a picture, what we see while we take the picture, and what we see in the photograph we get back from our processing service. We start with something that prompts our desire to take pictures. Often it's a special event; like a wedding, birthday, or holiday. People want to take pictures to help them remember the special times they've shared with their friends and relatives.

So, I'm at a party, and I want to take some pictures; I have my camera ready near by so I can quickly capture scenes that are often both precious and brief. While I'm enjoying the company of my friends I stay aware of what's going on around me. There are times when opportunities for fine pictures kind of clump together; like when they bring out the birthday cake. When I notice one of those situations, I pick up my camera and start watching the action. That's right, the action, people rarely stand still unless you tell them to and if you do then you've changed things. Then you can't photograph what was going on because you changed it. So enjoy yourself, but stay alert, be ready to capture those special moments. All to often I see someone look up and notice something wonderful happening just as it's ending. They look disappointed and say something like "Ah! I wish I'd gotten a picture of that".

Now that I'm ready to take pictures of the sure to be coming special scenes I watch more closely to see if I can anticipate a nice picture forming. During this time I am aware of my position with relation to those I may want to photograph. I look through my camera to SEE the potential picture from my camera’s point of view and if I'm not in a good spot to get the picture I want then I move. I've seen lots of people miss out on terrific pictures because they didn't move to a better spot to take the picture. If you're not able to move, consider handing your camera to someone and ask them to take the picture for you. As I notice cute, interesting, and otherwise desirable pictures forming around me I'm aware of what it is in each scene that has my attention. What ever has my attention is the reason I want to take the picture; it's the subject of my potential picture. I say potential because if I don't take the picture I won't have it. If the subject of a picture isn't clearly FEATURED in the picture then people will not necessarily be sure of why the picture was made. In a few years no one may recall why it was made. So, noticing what the subject of your picture will be and featuring the subject in the picture you take is what makes the picture a meaningful memory reminder for you. My experience has been that most people are pretty good at noticing the subject of their potential pictures. The place where they miss the boat is in clearly featuring their subject in the picture they take.

Here are some things you can do to more prominently feature the subject of your potential picture in the picture you take. Get used to looking through your camera. No matter what kind of camera you have the chances are real good that it has some sort of viewfinder. The place you can look through to SEE the scene the way the camera SEES it, the way the camera will take the picture when you press the button. Spend some time looking through your camera at different scenes. This is how your camera sees the world. If something nearly fills your viewfinder, it will nearly fill the picture you take. If something has only a small part of the scene in your viewfinder, it will have only a small part of the scene on the picture you take. A common problem people have with pictures is that they see the scene only with their eyes. When they hold up their camera to take a picture they only check that they have their camera pointed in the right direction. In this way they often miss the fact that they are far from the subject of their potential picture and it will look small in the picture they take. Many pictures would have been really improved if the people taking them had just moved closer to their subject. If I don't know how close my camera will allow me to get to the subject of my picture I use 4 feet as a rule of thumb for the minimum distance to my subject. If you get closer you'll risk the scene going blurry. The problem is that people are either much farther away so the subject of their potential picture is very small compared to the whole picture they take, or they take a picture of someone or something right next to them and get a blurry blob on the picture they take. Get to know how far 4 feet is. Stay back that far, but otherwise get close so the subject of your potential picture will be prominently featured in the picture you take. Not all viewfinders are created equal and as you move in closer with some cameras there may be some difference in the subject the way you see it in the viewfinder and how it turns out in the picture you take. This is one of the advantages of Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras. With an SLR your viewfinder "looks" through the same lens that the camera takes the picture with. So there is less chance for a difference between what you see in the view finder and what comes back on the picture you take. Take a test roll of pictures so you can see how the viewfinder on your camera works compared to the pictures you get back. Photograph different things and people indoors and outdoors. For each picture make notes on what the subject was, how far you were from the subject and how the subject looked in the viewfinder (how big compared to the whole viewfinder scene and where the subject was with relation to the frame edges of your viewfinder). When your test pictures come back you can compare them with the notes you made and have a good understanding of how your camera sees the world.

After you’ve gotten comfortable with seeing the world through your camera’s viewfinder there are many fine books available that specialize in the topic of photographic composition. With them, you can learn other ways to make your pictures more enjoyable and interesting by learning new things to consider as you see your potential pictures. Hey, I haven’t mentioned any tech. stuff nor have I told you that you’ve got to have a fancy expensive camera. Once you learn to see your pictures before you take them I think you’ll find you have a lot more "good ones". Sure, there are limitations to simple cameras, but even so they can capture many fine pictures for those who SEE their pictures then go take them.

Viewing your finished pictures:

Now that you’ve got your pictures back and you’re eagerly looking through them; how do they look? I’m talking about the colors now. You may not have noticed it before, but the way a photograph looks changes a lot depending on what kind of light is shining on it. Try this experiment to see for yourself. Take a varied assortment, 5 or 6, of your pictures to a place where you can switch between looking at them under florescent light, tungsten light (plain light bulb), and daylight. I think you’ll be surprised at how much the colors in your pictures change depending on the light that’s shining on them. Most of the time people don’t even notice this because we have become adapted to how things look under the different kinds of light we use. Most of the time this is only an issue when you want to be sure someone you’ve sent a picture to sees the same thing you saw when you looked at the picture. Then it can get real! complicated. There are loads! of different kind of light bulbs and lamps people use in their homes and offices. This can be further complicated by the colors in the room where the photograph is being looked at. Say for instance you and a friend have the same lights with the same light bulbs, but the room where you view the photograph has white walls and ceiling and the room where they view the photograph has red walls and a black ceiling. You won’t see the colors the same. Then the whole thing gets further complicated by the fact the different people’s eyes can see colors differently.

How do the shadows look in your pictures? Can you see into them and make out some hint of what was there in the picture? How about the light parts can you see the clouds in the sky, the ripples on the water, any of the detail of the fine white lace? A photograph can only capture a specific range of light to dark. The lightest area in a picture can only be as white as the natural white of the paper. There are also limits to how black something can be printed in a photograph. Unfortunately the range of light to dark commonly encountered in the scenes people take pictures of is greater than can be easily captured in a photograph. A common example is a scene where a picture is taken of a person who is sitting with their back to a brightly lit window. The picture comes back one of two ways; the person looks fine, but the window is all washed out white, or the person is very dark and the window looks fine. The picture could come back at points in between, but the person making the prints for you will try to figure out what the subject of your picture was and make the picture so that part is favored. Well, that may not be true, your pictures may not get looked at or the person may decide that however it came off the machine during the first automatic run was good enough. This sort of thing largely depends on the processing service you use. Generally you get what you pay for. You can have a lot of control over how you "spend" the range of lightness to darkness in your photographs, but you will need to care about it to get it. You can start by reading the Exposure topic at this site.

So have you had your pictures out lately? It’s kind of funny how we can’t wait to get our pictures back, then we show them around, and put them away. It might be years until they are once again found and enjoyed. I try to make a point of not letting my pictures wait so long between viewings. I find that looking through my pictures is not only a pleasant thing to do myself, but I also like to use them to help me get to know new friends. You can learn a lot about someone and have a great time too; it doesn’t really matter if the pictures are yours, there’s, or what. Sharing the memories that pictures hold brings people closer together. How are your pictures holding up? Unfortunately, it’s true that colors change and fade with time. Our clothes, furniture, pictures, cars, virtually everything we have changes colors over time. There are some things you can do to help though. Keep your pictures in a cool dry place. The color captured in your negatives changes over time too. Now most of the time people don’t get real excited about this sort of thing. If someone has an old print that’s in rough shape, they take their negative and get it reprinted. Depending how well and how long the negative has been stored an acceptable picture can be made. If there is something really important you want to take a picture of and you want it to last. The best thing to do is to take the picture using black and white (monochrome) film. Monochrome pictures hold up very well over time. Just think of all the really fine pictures you’ve seen in museums and other places that date back over a hundred years. Now be aware that you can get a monochrome print made from a color negative. Some monochrome prints are even made on color paper. If the way real monochrome materials last is important to you be sure to start with monochrome film and have the prints made on monochrome paper.

Easy reprints and enlargements:

Sometimes, after we get our pictures back, we wish we had extras or enlargements we could share with friends and family. Double print services are commonly available now and help with this, but there are still times when you may wish you had more or larger copies of certain pictures.

Another service along this line is that some processing services are offering 5" X 7" prints as a regular processing option. That is, all of the pictures on your roll are printed at 5" X 7". This may be good if you have a whole or most of a roll of pictures that are extra special.

Getting reprints used to be quite painful because you first had to find the negative for the picture you wanted copies or enlargements of then take it to the service counter and fill in the form showing what you want. Filling in the form could be a problem since some of them I have seen are quite difficult to figure out. After you get through with that, then you wait from a day to several days.

The good news is, there is a much easier way to get more copies and enlargements of your pictures. As you shop around your favorite stores keep your eye open for the new machines that are starting to become widely available. They look a bit like a video game; most of them are yellow and blue in color, others are gray. These machines allow you to make reprints and enlargements right there in the store. All you need is your original picture! That's right, you don't need your negative. Another good thing is that I haven't yet seen one of these where you had to fill out a form. The process seems to take around ten minutes so there is no long wait for your new pictures either. These machines have a video screen you touch to operate the machine and if you have any questions on how to use it the store clerks, from what I've seen, are very helpful. I think the best feature of these machines is that they make prints directly from your print picture. In case though, you'd like to make a print from a negative, a slide, or digital camera media, many of these machines can make prints and enlargements from those sources as well.

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