aviator

Hey everybody your friendly neighbourhodd YT calendar editor here.

It's getting to be that time of year again the photo submissions thread will be opening very soon and I thought it might help folks to have a few pointers/suggestions on taking better pics.

Let me first say I am not a professional photographer so I apologize to our members who are LOL...

Here are a some examples from last year's calendar winners



You can see the date time info on the photo. This had to be cropped out before it could be used in the calendar. This is not always possible based on image content. Please try to remember to turn off the date/time embed feature if you can when you're taking pics for submission. Don't worry if you can't submit those pics anyway! We'll just work around it.



This was an excellent photo very dramatic with the mist coming off the water in the background but you can see the truck in the foreground is in shadow. This happened because the camera's built in light meter detected the bright background and decided to set the "exposure" based on that.
Some cameras have a feature that allows you to select what part of the image the camera's light meter uses to set the exposure. In this case you want to (obviously) select the darker truck in the foreground this would have improved the quality of the image. The background would have been slightly over exposed but it still would have been a very nice and dramatic photo.



Here's a great example of an "action" shot but please be very careful if you choose to take these kinds of pics. The wheels can throw out debris/rocks/mud or the vehicle may suddenly move in an unexpected direction. No picture no matter how sweet is worth getting injured over.



Snow drifting shots like this are fantastic but again the same caution as above applies.



Fall shots like this one add a lot of colour and warmth to the image.



Overcast days can be some of the best days to shoot pics the light is usually balanced and the clouds can add some very dramatic effects as in this example

A few more general pointers are
1. Try to shoot with the sun behind you for better lighting.
2. Noon time sunlight is usually too bright, you'll get better pics in the morning and afternoon. Generally speaking the light is softer and the shadows make the pictures come to life.
3. Try to avoid having people other than yourself/your family in the pics. If the person is identifiable you must get a signed release from them before their image can be used. (and even then legal cans of worms can be opened). If the person cannot be clearly made out no worries (or at least less worries lol).
4. Be safe and have fun.