Braille scale monthly competition - Photo selection guide

Photography guidelines

Although not part of the judging system sharp, well cropped photos certainly help the judges to make better decisions, the judges have also been instructed to err on the cautious side if some areas are not visible or out of focus. So here are some do’s and don’ts for what makes a good competition photo.

Angles

Photos that show more than one side of the model at a time (multi angle) are better than a straight side/front on shot (single angle). Multi angle shots may be a combination of front and side or side and rear or side and top or even combining 3 elements such as front, side and top.
If taking a single angle shot turning the turret can certainly help.

Not good

Better

Good

Cropping

Cropping is just as important as a good angle. Poorly cropped or uncropped photos also make it difficult for the judges to come to a fair decision. Here are some examples:

Not good

Good

You should try and crop your photos so as there’s a small amount of empty space around the model, to little empty space can also be bad. Try and crop any unsightly or distracting elements from the background such as the edges of the backdrop etc. If you’re cropping part of the model away for effect then make sure it is the most visibly interesting part that remains.
If you don’t already have some software to crop you photo’s there is an excellent piece of freeware software available called Irfanview. It is very easy to use and gives excellent results. It can be downloaded from: Irfanview is only available for PC users.

Backgrounds

When thinking about a place to take your photos make sure you have a plain background. A single colour background is best and darker colours tend to be better than lighter colours with white being the most difficult colour to obtain good results with. Cheap and suitable backgrounds are large pieces of cardboard from any art supply shop. Place your cardboard background as shown in the illustration below and secure it to your work bench with bulldog clips or blue-tac.

Not good

Better

Photoshoped backgrounds may look good but they are not acceptable for this competition.

Unacceptable

Focus

Focus is one of the most important element to consider when picking photos to enter. The photo is all the judge has to go by when making a decision so they will not be able to tell how good your workmanship is if they can’t see it. Completely blurry photos are unacceptable and photos that have the majority of the model out of focus are not good either.

Unacceptable

Not good

The main causes of blurry photos are: placing your camera too close to you model, poor lighting and camera shake due to a lack of a tripod.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money to improve the situation, 2 desk lamps to provide the light and a cheap tripod, if you can’t get a tripod secure your camera on a pile of books with some blue-tac to make a good substitute. Most importantly if you don’t have a shutter release cable for your camera then you must use your camera’s inbuilt timer to avoid camera shake whilst trying to take the photo even if you use a tripod.

Lighting

Lighting is one of the trickiest parts of photography, but with a few simple tips you should be able to take acceptable photos. Don’t mix your lighting sources as this will throw your camera’s colour balance off giving your models a strange colour, very different from the one you painted it. The worst mixed lighting sources include tungsten (normal light bulbs) and fluoro lamps, or any artificial light source and day light. The best light sources are tungsten daylight globes as they give the truest colours.

Arrange your lighting so you have one light on each side and slightly above your model. For even lighting keep each lamp the same distance away from the model. For even better lighting place a third lamp next to the camera.
Try not to use a flash as this will certainly give you some very harsh shadows.
If taking photos outdoors an overcast day is much better than bright sunshine.