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Prom photo-ops have traditionally come in two flavors.

1) A camera-wielding parent on the front porch 2) The dude your high school hired arranging your arms into awkward poses.

You can shoot a mean photo, so why not try your hand at playing photographer for the night? For a kickstart, we put together a guide for prom photos that are as cool and fun as you are.

Learn how to levitate in photos or how to make your own photobooth for a post-prom party.

You only get to go to prom once (or twice, if you’re cool like that). So make photos that’ll wow your date and will be awesome to look at years later!

How to Take Awesome Prom Photos

Why it’s cool:

We know it’s the end of the school-year, and you’ve got spring fever. But what better way to get summer started than with a burst of creativity with you and your friends looking your finest.

We searched for inspiration near and far, and came up with this list to help you break the mold. Go ahead, try some out!

Get Outside:

Move the photo shoot off the front porch. See what’s in the backyard or around the corner for a more rural or urban feel to your pics.

Apps like ShootLocal can help you find great locations right in your neighborhood.

If you’re a film buff, this site shows you locations of movie sets around the globe. There may be one closer than you think.

Frame it Up:

It’s prom, right? A little cheese is okay. Use props to enhance your photos.

Find funky old frames at antique or thrift stores. A can of spray paint can really add some flare to your frame and give it a fresh new look.

Lean it against a nearby tree or pole, or have a friend hold it in place. Position your subjects inside of the frame for a fun picture within a picture.

Speaking of pictures within pictures…

Are you obsessed with instant film? So are we! Use an instant camera to take creative portraits.

Take a closeup of you and your date. Shake it like a polaroid picture, and when it’s ready, hold it up for the camera.

Check out these Instaxagrams for more ideas.

Float above the rest:

Don’t let gravity get you down. Get up and inspired by Natsumi Hayashi’s levitation photos.

Warning: This is not as effortless as it seems. You might have to take a few shots to get just the right one. We had our model jump several times until it looked natural.

Use a fast shutter speed (1/500 of a second) and take a lot of snaps. Watch this for some insight into the process and great tips on how to look like you’re levitating.

If you want to be more strategic (and less sweaty), here’s a tutorial on how to edit your photos using Photoshop to create the illusion of levitation.

Split it up:

We’re totally fascinated with Lomokev’s fragmented portraits.

Try it out by taking 5 or 6 photos of a friend from head to toe, and collaging the photos together in a photo editor.

To maintain a proper perspective, keep the camera level with each part of the body, meaning get up high for the face and down low for the feet.

If you prefer analog, have prints made and put them together like a puzzle!

Use Creative Phoneography Apps:

The best camera is the one that’s with you, right? Use photo booth apps on your phone to shoot some extra fancy snapshots.

We used ClassicBooth for the iPhone. If you’re an Android snapper, PocketBooth is one of our faves.

Did you say camera phone?

Why not use them as a prop? Snap a quick pic of your date, and hold it up for all to see!

For more inspiration, check out Nate Bolt’s jumboltron project.

Follow us at our phoneography blog and our Instagram @photojojo for even more app suggestions!

Set up your own Photo Booth:

Grab some funky fabric to use as a backdrop. Check out your local fabric store, or borrow that awesome shower curtain from your bathroom.

String it up in a nice shady spot outside. Grab a tripod, and use the self-timer or remote shutter on your camera to take fun photos of you and your friends. (BTW, you can use your iPhone as a remote, too!)

Take it further

• Animate your photo session. Make a gif of all your photos to share with your friends.
• While you’re at it, try making a time lapse of you and your friends getting ready. This guy makes it quick and easy!
• Late nights with friends are the perfect time to try some light painting. Use long exposures and flash lights, phones, or even sparklers to paint the night away. Here’s a guide!
• Heading to some sweet after-parties? Use these Flash Filters to add color to your photos.

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Getting a once-in-a-lifetime shot is every photographer’s dream, but having those shots tainted by blur can be gut-wrenching.

While you might not be able to choose when these prize shots come your way, you can make sure you’re ready for them with some choice equipment and a little technique.

Your photos will be so sharp you’ll be able to slice tomatoes with them! Odd? Yes. Sharp? Awesome!

How to Become a Sharper Shooter

p.s. Oh yeah! Our chums at 4by6.com have another free special for Photojojo fans today. They make funtastic square cards from your Instagram pics and more!

Why It’s Cool:

Sharpness can make the difference between a photo heading to the trash and a photo heading to the photolab for an enlargement print. While blur can add a creative twist to some photographs, the majority of photos look better with clean, sharp edges.

From elegant macro photos to full-action jump shots, sharpness is the deciding factor in whether or not an exposure is a successful one.

Method 1 – The Old Three-Legged Standby

A good tripod might just be your most useful photo accessory. Three legs keep your camera expertly stable, making for perfectly sharp photos.

With so many tripod types and brands on the market though, it can be a little daunting to pick out the best one for you. When looking for a tripod, there are three things to consider:

1. Construction: Plastic isn’t to fantastic when it comes to tripods. Metal is by far the most sturdy, but can be heavier to carry around. If you have to transport your tripod around a lot, consider investing in one made from carbon-fibre. Though generally more expensive than their metal counterparts, the carbon-fibre tripods are much lighter and just as sturdy.

2. Size: It’s best to be conservative here, unless you want to own a multitude of tripods. If you’re looking for one tripod to rule them all, find one that can support the weight of camera with its heaviest lens and a hot-shoe flash. This will keep you covered for any situation you might come across.

Method 2 – Learn a Little String Theory

If you forget your tripod at home, a bit of string and a pencil can be fashioned into something we call, “the Stringpod.”

To make a stringpod, cut a length of string that reaches from your toes to your head. Then, tie one end of the string around a pencil or pen. Lastly, tie the other end of the string around your camera lens, close to the camera body.

To use the stringpod, stand on the pencil with both feet and pull the string taut (gently!). This will cut down on camera shake drastically, letting you come away with sharp photos in a pinch.

If you want to take the stringpod to the next level, buy a screw that fits the tripod mount on the bottom of your camera. These can be sold for a few cents at any hardware store. Then, tie the string to the screw instead of around the lens. This works great for compact cameras!

Method 3 – Brace for Exposure

Your heartbeat causes your body to move around a lot more than you might think. Try sitting perfectly still for a minute and you’ll see what we mean.

While it keeps you alive, this movement can cause your arms to move around a lot, taking your camera along with it. This can lead to blurry photos. The best way to prevent this to to adopt a bracing stance.

With your feet shoulder-width apart, tuck your arms into your chest. This will cut down on shake dramatically. For extra stability, lean up against something solid, like a wall or a pillar.

Method 4 – Set Up for Success

You can increase your chances of getting your subject sharply in focus by using the right f-stop. The higher the f-stop number, the larger the focal distance.

This means there’s a larger space in your exposure that will be in focus, giving you more room to find that sweet sharp spot.

Maxing out your f-stop for the available light will help you ensure you’ll have a sharp photo. This means using the highest f-stop you can without your shutter speed getting slower than 1/60th of a second (if the shutter speed goes slower than that, you might get motion blur).

For some lenses, the sharpest f-stop is between f/8 and f/11. Each lens is different and has its own sweet spot, but for most lenses, this is the optimal range.

Method 5 – Save the Day With Unsharp Mask

Sometimes you get a photo that’s almost perfect. It’s just a little soft on the sharpness. This could be caused by a bit of camera shake or if the focus being slightly off.

Thankfully, Photoshop (or GIMP) can save the exposure using Unsharp Mask. Go Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask and take a look at the sliders that come up. Generally, “Threshold” should be left at 0, but the other two values can work together to create sharpness.

The “Amount” slider controls how much contrast is added to the edges in your image. This should be used sparingly though, as too much will make your photo look grainy.

The “Radius” slider controls how wide the size of the edges become. The higher the number, the larger the edges of the pixels. Too high a value here will create strange halos, so play with the slider.

Use the Preview check box to see how changing these values changes the sharpness of your photo. Unsharp Mask won’t save photos that are moderately to severely blurry, but it can polish photos that are just a little too soft.

More Tips on Sharpness:

• Team your tripod up with a camera remote. This removes any camera-shake made by your hands!
• If you find yourself needing to move around a lot during a photo shoot, try a monopod. You’ll still have to support it, but it’ll cut down on camera shake.
• On long-exposures, try using the mirror lock-up feature (you’ll find it in your custom settings). This flips the mirror inside your camera up before starting the exposure, reducing camera shake and increasing sharpness.
• The faster your shutter-speed, the more likely your photo is to be sharp. Fast shutters freeze motion!
• ISO speeds can affect the crispness of your photo, too. A higher ISO increases the amount of noise and graininess in an image, which leads to a less crisp exposure.
• For an alternative to the DIY Stringpod, try out our Pocket Pod!

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It’s a heartbreaking tale: film may one day be hard to find.

With companies cutting down on the kinds of film they make, filmophiles are working to amass a stash of their favorites.

The good news is film keeps better than a fruitcake from 2005!

With a few simple steps, the film you bought in 2012 will be usable for years to come.

How to Store Your Film

p.s. Photojojo’s hiring! We’re seeking a top-notch writer and a full-time buyer in San Francisco.

Why it’s important to store your film properly:

Film might not be around someday, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop using film for your photography and photo projects any time soon.

Expired film can be fun, but when you want your photographs to be true-to-life, you’ll want to make sure your film still looks vibrant.

While freezing film doesn’t completely stop your film from aging (gamma rays fog the film over time), it slows it down, giving you extra time to play with your film cameras.

HEADS UP: Polaroid, Impossible Project, and Fuji instant films shouldn’t be put in the freezer since it messes with the chemicals in the film.

Things You’ll Need:

• A label maker (or a printer and clear scotch tape)
• Your film stash
• Index cards
• Plastic storage bins
• Optional: matching empty canisters*

*If you don’t have enough at home, you can ask your local photo lab for some.

Step 1 – Break Your Film Out of the Box

Keeping your film inside or outside of its box doesn’t affect the expiration date.

When you’re organizing a huge stock of film, it will make it easier to store.

Space can be limited in freezers (after all, you need to store popsicles in there), and boxes only add to the amount of space taken up by your stash.

TIP: If the film comes in foil wrap, keep it in there. That helps with keeping the film fresh.

Step 2 – Become One with the Label Maker

To help you find the type of film you’re looking for faster, we recommend making labels with the type of film and the ISO.

If you don’t have a label maker, you can print on a sheet of paper and use a piece of clear tape for homemade label goodness.

Step 3 – Divide it Up

Put your film canisters in a storage bin (or more) and organize them with dividers. You can find all kinds of storage bins with lids at Ikea, The Container Store, or online.

You can make easy dividers using index cards. Fold down the top edge and pop a label on it.

You’ll know exactly where your color negative film ends and your slide film begins! Revel in the nerd moment.

Step 4 – Let Your Film Chill Out

Now choose where you’d like your film to live in your freezer, put the lid on the plastic bin, and let it freeze. A normal freezer temperature of 0 to -10F/-18 to 0C will do the job.

The freezer is like a spa for your film. It extends the life of the light sensitive chemicals embedded in the emulsion.

We’ve heard some folks have had film stay vibrant for almost a decade and a half! Check out this thread about photographer’s oldest rolls of frozen film.

For more technical information about film storage temperatures and the like, check out this guide from Kodak.

FUN FACT: The slower the speed, the slower the film ages. High speed films (like 3200) won’t last as long in the freezer.

Step 5 – Thaw When Ready

When you’re ready to put your stored film to use, you’re going to want to thaw it. We recommend at least an hour.

The film will be brittle and may snap if it isn’t at room temperature. Plus waiting til its room temperature before you open it prevents condensation from forming on the film.

Take your chosen rolls or packs out, and leave it on the counter for a few hours before loading it into your camera.

Tips For Amassing Your Own Stockpile:

• Film rarely goes on sale, but it doesn’t hurt to ask labs for bulk discounts.
• Same goes for photographers switching to digital — eBay and Craigslist are good sources for finding large stashes for sale.
• When buying don’t forget to ask how the film has been stored. If it wasn’t at least kept in a fridge and has passed its expiration, it’s most likely expired.

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There was that time your nephew accidentally deleted a month’s worth of photos. Or how about that time that your sister borrowed your camera and forgot to give it back?

To say the least, there are gaps in the photo timeline of your life.

That’s why we were pretty excited to hear about Pictarine!

It’s a web app that collects your photos from all the different places you’ve posted them on the web — Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox and lots more. It then turns them into a clean timeline that you can browse.

It’s even able to pull in photos your closest friends snapped, so you can see photos from the get-together that you didn’t get on camera.

We could tell you how nostalgic it’ll make you feel, but scrolling through your life in photo-form is something you’ll have to experience yourself.

Make a Photo Timeline with Pictarine via Netted

p.s. We’re judging a self-portrait contest by our friends at ViewBug. Check it out for chance at $100 in Photojojo bux and more!

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Phoneography is the best. No matter where you go, you’ve got a camera.

Not just any camera, but a camera that lets you share your photos in that same instant with all your friends.

We love sharing tips, project ideas, apps & inspiration so much, we decided to start a whole new blog about how much We Love Phoneography!

To celebrate, we gathered our all-time fave phone photo tricks for phoneography amazingness that’ll wow your friends and your Instagram art critics.

10 Tips to Improve Your Phoneography

p.s. We’re throwing a contest today for a chance to win Cell Lenses! Follow us on our new Tumblr to see how to enter.

#1: Control Your Exposure

You can do some major change to the mood of a photo by forcing your phone to over or under-expose the scene you’re shooting.

One easy-peasy way to do this with your built-in camera app is to tap the screen in the lightest or darkest area and watch the changes that occur.

Try making three photos: One normally, one by tapping a dark area of your scene, and one by tapping the brightest area. Compare the differences!

(Our friend Joey showed us this tip on his Instagram stream! Thanks Joey!)

#2: Have Fun With Your Phone’s Flash

Your phone’s flash is made to fire right when you snap a photo, which can make the results hard to predict.

Apps like Camera+ (iPhone, 99¢) allow you to leave your flash on continuously while you set up your shot, so the results are perfect every time.

If you’re a fan of the classic toy camera look, you can easily splash some color into your phone’s flash too! Grab some Color Flash Filters and hold them in front of your camera’s flash for a filmy look that’s unpredictable & fun.

#3: Practice Symmetry

Imagine yourself as a designer for the day!

Well composed photographs often follow basic design rules, and patterns sure are pretty!

When you go out photo-shooting, be on the lookout for repeating lines, patterns, and other shapes you can use to turn your photos into art.

If you’re feeling stuck, start by collecting one specific shape; like a triangle!

#4: Pair your photos together in split-frames

Sometimes 2 (or 3, or 4…) is better than one.

Apps like Diptic (iPhone, 99¢), PicFrame (iPhone, 99¢), and WoW Camera (iPhone, free & paid version available) can help you join many photos together just like you would in a real frame!

Combine multiple photos to show action sequences, zoom in on details, and make interesting comparisons!

*For more awesome tips on how you can combine your phone photos, check out the Instagram blog.

#5: Tilt/Shift Like A Pro

Tilt/Shift is a blur effect you can apply to your phone photos that mimics the way 4″x5″ film cameras focus selectively. (It has the power to make giant things look miniature, too!)

We like to think of tilt/shift as the seasoning in a recipe for a good photo: (it won’t make a bad photo good, but can ruin a good photo if you use too much.)

With TiltShift Generator, you can control the size and intensity of the blur you add, so you don’t add too much “spice” to the photo recipe at once.

A few other apps with tilt/shift features we like using: Pictureshow (iPhone, $1.99), Camera360 (Android, free & paid versions), and Snapseed (iPhone, $4.99)

#6: Cell Phone Lenses

Cell Phone Lenses are your phone’s best friend!

They’ll help you magically get closer than your eye can see (macro) and fit an entire room into one snap (fisheye.)

Incidentally, to see some of the most awesome photography on the internet, check out the #photojojomacro and #photojojofisheye tags on Instagram.

#7: The Double-Filter Trick

One of our personal favorite secret photo-editing weapons!

Filtering a photo twice can give you unexpected results – kind of like cross-processing film!

In this example, our first filter converted the original downtown photo to black & white.

Next, we ran the photo through several Instagram filters to get these different colors!

(Also try: mixing filters from different apps, adding the same filter twice, collecting light leaks from all your apps, or using ALL the Instagram filters in a row!)

*Hint: If you want to double-filter a photo with Instagram, switch your phone to airplane mode (+ wifi off) before you publish, and your phone will save the photo without adding it to your stream!

#8: HDR Camera Shake

When your phone takes a photo in HDR mode, it’s really taking several photos at once and averaging them all together to make one “perfect” picture.

Since we’re mad photo scientists, naturally we got to work playing with this feature seeing what kinds of art we could make by breaking it.

We found that if we shake the phone while making a photo in HDR mode, the results can end up looking a lot like old-school double exposures!

The same neat effect can also be seen if you use HDR mode to take photos of things moving past you quickly like cars, planes, or even cows (if you have a tripod!)

More things to try: Use HDR to photograph other cars on the road from the passenger seat, make your own phone-friendly version of camera tossing, or make eerie double-exposed ghost images of your friends!

#9: Double (or Triple!) Your Exposures In-App

Another sure-fire way to get pro results that’ll blow your viewers away is to combine multiple photos in one!

Apps like DXP (iPhone, free & paid versions available) and PhotoForge2 (iPhone, $1.99) can help you get the job done quickly & beautifully.

There are many apps that combine images, and you’ll find that they usually have many “blending modes” to choose from (overlay, multiply, soft light, etc…) We think it’s best to experiment while you work!

Keep playing with options until you find something that looks exciting to you, there are no rules in double/triple exposure photography!*whew!*

#10: Anything Can Be A Lens Filter!

One of our fav parts about Phoneography is that you don’t need tons of professional equipment to get amazing results.

While traditional cameras sport large lenses that require specific filters for experimentation, the iPhone’s camera is super tiny, and only requires a filter the size of a pinky!

What does that mean?

It means anything can be your filter!

Press your iPhone lens up against a piece of a plastic soda bottle for a free substitute to a pricey colored gel, try shooting through fabric or lace, tracing paper, 35mm slides, the possibilities are endless!

Want a set of rad lens filters that’ll always be by your side? Check out our Holga iPhone Lens dial!

Even More Tips to Try:

• Are you on Instagram? So are we! Follow our stream for weekly tips on free apps, inspiring quotes, phoneography tips, DIY projects, and more!
• Want a list of the best tried-and-true apps for iPhone? Here’s our guide.
• Android, we love you too! Here’s our guide to the best Android photo apps!
• In love with your new photos? You should be! Use our guide to printing your own Phone photos to make them into magnets, stickers, and more!

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The Holidays are over: all the eggnog has been drunk and the presents opened.

Some of you have already had coffee, grabbed your new camera and are ready for a photo challenge for the coming year.

Or maybe some of you are still in your jammies whilst Instagramming your new Angry Bird slippers.

Well, we’ve got some amazing photo projects to inspire and motivate you all!

From daily year-long endeavors to self-portraits and solargraphs, there’s a project that’ll suit your photo personality.

Photo Projects for a Snappy New Year

1. Photo Ideas for the Self-Portraitist

Are your self-portrait photos a daily habit, scheduled between having coffee & combing your hair? Or are you looking to start the habit? Well, here are some awesome examples of folks who’ve experimented with photographic self-portraiture.

• Take A Self-Portrait Everyday: Noah Kalina started taking a photo of himself since he was 19 back in 2000, and hasn’t stopped since! He posts them on his web site Noah K Everyday, and there’s also a video of all his portraits.

  If you’re wondering, “How the heck does he line himself up consistently for every picture?!” it’s cuz he uses a camera that has a flip screen to help him!



• Layer Your Self-Portraits: Who says you have to view your photos one portrait at a time?

  For part of his grad project, Tiemen Rapati took clickflashwhirr’s portraits and did some Photoshop layering magic that put all 500 portraits in one!

2. A Photo Project For the Family Guy or Gal

Got a fantastic family who’s pictures you just can’t snap enough?

Take photos of each family member once a year as a unique way to capture your family’s “growth” like photographer Diego Goldberg did in “The Arrow of Time.”

Mr. Goldberg has been taking a picture of his whole family once every June 17th since 1976!

See the full photographic family timeline here.

3. Daily Photo Ideas for the Camera-Shy

Perhaps you’re a photographer whose personality is like that of an eager yet timid woodland squirrel—you’re nuts about photography, but you quickly scurry away to hide whenever anybody tries to snap a pic of you.

Well, here are projects within your natural comfort zone!

• Take Daily Photos of Where You’re Standing: The hashtag for this photo group says it all— #fromwhereistand!

  Take a cue from Holly—aka the soupatraveler—and her own set of #fromwhereistand pictures, titled “Good Morning”!

  She made the photo-taking work with her daily morning habit, in which she enjoys a cup of coffee in her garden—a consistency that you’ll see in her set!



• Take Daily Photos of Your Favorite Lunch or Hang-out Spot: Have a place you like to lunch at or hang out on a daily or frequent basis?

  Take photos of the place or setting over a period of time & seasons, like Paul Octavius did in his “Same Hill, Different Day” series!

  This delightful project captures a hill in Chicago in different seasons, hosting a variety of activities, from kite festivals to Ghana soccer players at practice!

4. 365 for the iPhoneographer

Do you tote around an iPhone, or did you just get one for Christmas?

Get Photo365—this app makes it super easy to keep track of your first (or third!) photo 365 project!

The Photo365 app lets you take photos directly from your camera or your camera roll, and you get the option of seeing all your daily pics in a handy monthly view!

5. A DIY Project for the Patient, Film Enthusiast

Are the above photo project ideas just not hands-enough for ya?

Well then, we challenge you with capturing your own solargraph this year!

A solar-whaaaa?

A solargraph is basically the photo that results from a pinhole camera that’s designed for a six-month-long exposure!

Get the deets on how to make one yourself with Ilya’s handy tutorial here!

Solargraph featured was taken in Germany, a collaboration between Robert Fosbury & Tarja Trygg.

Take Your Year Further

• Starting your first 365 photo project and feeling a little iffy on commitment? Get some encouragement & helpful tips from Taylor Knight’s Project 365 post.
• The beautiful & touching photo collage featured above is from Karin Stack’s “Hair Stories,” in which she documents her hair growth following chemo.
• Hey parents! Keep a photographic track of your cute kid’s growth & make a great video from all the photos like JAMagicFilms did with Natalie!
• Check out “A History of the Sky”, a calming year-long time lapse video on the sky!
• Videos not your thing? Make a coffee table book from all of your photos using Blurb or Shutterfly. The Creative Mama has some neat tips on how to make your photos book-ready!

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Holiday. Photo. Time.

Three innocent little words that when strung together can cause much anxiety in parents around the globe.

To reduce the stress and end up with photos that really capture the true spirit of your family, we nabbed professional kid photographer and author of Click!, Rachel Devine.

Rachel’s neatly rolled up her top notch advice in this guide that’ll last you straight through your eggnog supply and into next year!

Top 10 Tips for Photographing Kids

THINK!

The best way to avoid the tired old holiday portraits is to think about your shot and what the holiday truly means to your family.

Capture holiday traditions that are unique and make sure that your little family’s personalities are represented.

These are images of your kids, so show them how they really are. Tell their story.

Christmas Eve in Australia with my three kids looks Just. Like. This.

PREPARE!

Get things set up BEFORE* you bring the child into the photo session.

This is essential as children have extremely short expiration dates on their patience for picture taking. Don’t waste any time on getting your settings and exposure right.

*Never leave little kids alone in or around water…make sure your camera is with you before running the bath!

BREATHE!

The holidays can be chaotic. Don’t forget to breathe!

If the quest for a perfect holiday photo is stressing you out, forget the special posed portrait and go back through the last year’s worth of images and pull a few that represent how your children have grown and changed through the months.

Presenting the photos together in chronological order on the front of a card will be like a visual update for the year. Remember those annual Christmas letters from the long lost aunt? Like that, but in pictures.

SMILE!

Make your heart smile and hand the camera over to your kids.

Let them record what the holidays mean to them and get a different perspective of your world.

If you don’t want to actually put the fancy camera in their hands, let them direct the process and help come up with ideas for the outfits everyone is to wear and location.

Make sure you put a little note in there to say “Styled by Child’s Name and Age” so your friends don’t think you have completely lost your mind.

Research!

If you really want to do something with a holiday theme, look around your town for places that remind you of the season.

This Christmas tree farm was our little way of getting an “American Christmas” here in our new home in Australia.

Push!

Force yourself out of the formal posed rut and aim to capture a beautiful moments that happen in daily life.

Here, the light in the guest room was so lovely that a simple game of wrestling came out gorgeous.

If you want it more controlled than daily life, but still relaxed, set the kids up on the bed with a favorite holiday story book and capture them reading it all together.

Look!

Try interesting angles and look at your subject from above, below, through and even under things in their environment.

PRACTICE!

Practice what you say, I mean.

If you say just one more photo, respect the kids and just take one more photo!

It is so important to keep the photo shoots with children happy and light. The energy you give out is what you will get back and what will be captured in your camera!

REFINE!

Did you get a great shot during the year, but the clothes did not match or the background was too busy?

Convert your color shots to black and white to simplify the look and unify all the mismatched details!

REACH!

Whether you are the crafty sort and can create your own cards, or choose from the multiple printing companies out there, don’t forget to share your memories with others.

This day and age, you can save some money and a trees by sending out digital cards to your loved ones.

Turning your photos into gifts, creating photo books, notebooks and even printing and framing will make someone smile.

Rachel Devine is a commercial kid photographer and American ex-pat based out of Australia. She runs a photo blog Sesame Ellis and teaches people how to take better photos in online classes and live workshops.

Check out her books: Click! How to Take Gorgeous Photos of Your Kids and Beyond Snapshots (coming in March 2012).

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Like instant film and harem pants, GIFs are making quite the comeback.

They may have had an awkward start back in their earlier days, but now GIFs are easier to craft and looking better than ever thanks to lasers, smart phones, and good old fashioned creativity.

We found the raddest and baddest ways to make and show off GIFs from real-life GIF zoetropes to making your phone’s background animated.

Creepy dancing Ally McBeal baby, step aside. There are new GIFs in town.

How to Kick Your GIFs Up a Notch

Main image credit: GIF Shop

1. History of the GIF

Short for Graphics Interchange Format, the GIF came out in the late eighties as a bitmap image format that was able to support animation.

Like the adolescent years, many of the earlier GIFs were animated awkwardly and sometimes spastically.

Yet their ability to capture animation captured our own beating hearts by providing us the means to make a more dynamic kind of photo or illustration.

Like Batman. With kittens. Awww.

GIF via this isn’t happiness.

2. Hey iPhone, you GIF?

Your iPhone can GIF thanks to some neat apps, like:

• GIF Shop – Lets you edit and loop your GIFS with neat features like onion skinning, which helps you line up different shots.

• Giffer – Has a cool photo picker that lets you select more than one photo at a time.

• Loopcam – This one’s free! It’s a stripped-down app that lets you make GIFs from photos quick and easy.

• Figgif – Lets you make a GIF from video you record on your phone.

Android users: As of now, we haven’t found stellar GIF apps for Android, but we’ll update here if any better ones pop up!

3. The Cinemagraph: The Glorified GIF

If early GIFs are comparable to the awkward adolescent years, then cinemagraphs are GIFs in their most golden age—sleek and très chic.

First introduced by the talented team of photographer Jaime Beck and motion designer Kevin Burg, these sophisticated GIFs took the web world by storm, eliciting oooo’s and aah’s from fascinated viewers.

Get inspired by Beck and Burg’s cinematic creations, and then get right into making your with our cinemagraph tutorial!

4. GIF up your iPhone screen!

For you iRebels rockin’ jailbroken iPhones, show off more of that dissident spirit by GIF-ing up your lockscreen.

With some patience and this custom lockscreen tutorial, an animated iPhone lockscreen will soon be yours to rock and roll.

Warning to tech n00bs—this requires quite some tinkering to work, so proceed with caution and extra patience!

5. The Real World: GIF edition

Wait, you mean, GIFs aren’t limited to viewing just on the computer screen?

Nope—thanks to Greg Borenstein & Scott Wayne Indiana, the creative folks who make GIF zoetropes at Physical GIFs!

Physical GIFs are based on the persistence of vision: when a series of frames moving quickly is perceived as one moving image by your eyes and brain.

Each frame of a GIF is carved by lasers out of plexiglass, and then the frames are animated with the use of a spinning disc and a strobe light. See one in action in this video!

They’ve recently reached their fundraising goal on Kickstarter, so expect to see some real-time GIFs proudly displayed on some lucky coffee tables soon!

6. Turn Videos into GIFs!

Wanna make a GIF from a section of your favorite YouTube video, or your own video files? GIF ‘em right up with the following converter sites:

• GIFsoup – The chicken soup for your digital soul, GIFsoup basically helps you turn your own YouTube videos into a GIF!
• Bender Converter – This nifty converter can make GIFs from a plethora of sites, including YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook!

GIF created from video featuring Raoul Ortega and filmed by David McClymonds.

GIF me more

• Have Photoshop or Gimp but never GIF-ed before? Learn how to make ‘em in Photoshop and in Gimp.
• No Photoshop? No worries! GIFninja is here to save the day. As is Picasion and Gickr! These are just three examples of free GIF makers available for you to use on the interwebz.
• Not only can your GIFs move, they can wiggle and look 3D, too. Make your own wiggle 3D GIF—like David Fitzsimmon’s GIF above!
• Fruits can get their GIF on, too—check out these amazing animated MRI fruit scans created by MRI technologist Andy Ellison!
• Made an awesome GIF and dying to share it to the world? Upload your pixel-moving masterpieces to your own blog, or have ‘em join the GIF party! Did your cat star in your GIF? There’s a page to showcase your cat’s animated antics, too!

Thanks to David Fitzsimmon’s for the Wiggle 3D photo! Check out his rad animal photo book Curious Critters, too!

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While we love taking photos on land, and sometimes high up in the sky, we can’t resist the magic that takes place underwater.

Real life Nemos, free floating props, and fashionable mermaids show us that underwater is the place to be!

Get a camera that can work in a (extremely) wet environment, and dive in to capture and
conquer the wonders of the water world.

Here‘s our top 15 list of uh-mazingly easy tips to get your feet wet in underwater photography.

15 Ultimate Underwater Photography Tips

p.s. Work with us! Photojojo’s hiring both in and outside of San Francisco. Seeking web developers, product buyers & sourcers, photographers, and writers.

Photos: Main + guitar by Sarah Lee; bubble close up by Sasha Leahovcenco

What To Shoot With Underwater

Underwater photography isn’t just for pros with ginormous budgets. Underwater cameras are actually really accessible!

You can find single-use disposable underwater cameras or better yet reusable ones like the Reusable Underwater Film Camera.

Digital underwater cameras are also great since you get to instantly see your photos.

You can always protect the DSLR you already own with an underwater housing system. These range from $80 upwards, but some camera shops rent these out. iPhone housing systems are also being made for underwater iPhoneography.

1. Shoot in Safe Waters

A swimming pool is a great place to spend hours with your camera, because there aren’t any
unpredictable, strong under currents or aggressive marinelife with sharp teeth to worry about.

When you plunge into the ocean, lakes, and rivers just remember to always be aware of your surroundings and the limit to your swimming abilties.

2. Have Enough Light

The best time to shoot underwater are on bright afternoons when sunlight travels intensely and aplenty in the water.

When conditions aren’t in your favor (and you’re swimming in deep, gloomy waters) use flash or artificial light to bring out colors and take away shadows.

If your camera doesn’t have built-in flash or your built-in flash isn’t strong enough, use an external flash or bring in an underwater strobe. These are pretty affordable to rent at around $40.

To avoid illuminating particles between you and the subject (known as backscatter which shows up as white spots) position your external flash at an angle towards the lens.

3. Stay at the Surface

Sometimes the coolest water effects are found right at the top.

Play with sunbeams, surface reflections, and backlit texture.

You can also split your frame in half by revealing half of the world below water and half of it above.

4. Get Close

Closeness may be something we’re uncomfortable with on land, but those boundaries blur when we’re in the water.

Getting in close to your subject gives you crazy-awesome details like when you’re photographing endangered water species or the slimy threads of backlit algae. If you’re able to get your hands on a DSLR casing, try experimenting with macro lenses.

When you’re not shooting with a macro lens, practice composition by filling in your entire frame with your underwater subjects.

5. Get Acrobatic

One of the best things about being underwater is floating. It’s as if we’re defying gravity.

The next time you dive in, set your camera to a high shutter speed and have your friends tumble in after you while you wait below them with your camera. You’ll catch them mid-dive in unexpected positions that end up looking like an aquatic ballet.

6. Make Bubbles

Bubbles are a great way to create interest in a photo, and also a fun excuse to splash water in your friend’s face.

Experiment with hard plastic straws or water guns, too!

7. Bring in Props

Common swimming pool toys are fun and all, but household items like books, an umbrella, or even a bicycle seem more fitting (or not) underwater.

Elena Kalis is a great example of a photographer using props to create whimsical and stunning portraits.

8. PRACTICE YOUR SHOT BEFORE YOU TAKE It

Discuss your plan and have your subject practice first above water and then one or two times below water.

It’s less tiring for everyone, especially since holding your breath and doggy paddling is involved!

9. Wear light clothing

If you’re photographing others in costume, make sure to keep in mind that when clothes are wet, they make it harder to swim.

Clothes that we’ve found to be most swim friendly are nightgowns, leggings, sundresses, shirt, ties, and spandex.

Hint: The tighter the clothing the less resistance you’ll have to move freely underwater.

10. Shoot Up or Across

Most of the time we’re photographing water, we shoot from above down into the water. Being underwater lets you get as low as you want to dive!

This lets you shoot up at your subject or directly across from it.

When you shoot upwards you can even catch awesome backlighting (yay sunbeams!).

5 More Too-Amazing Ideas

• Shoot in the rain. Grab your cam for a rainstorm to get those double-dare-you-to-jump-in-that-huge-puddle shots.
• Have a pool party. Invite your friends over and take the pool party to another level!
• Waterslide portraits! The next time you’re going down a twisty waterslide, shoot a self portrait (old school style, at an arm’s length away) or wait at the bottom and catch your friends’ funny faces.
• Take a shower! Use a shower curtain as a backdrop, and you’ve got an indoor rainstorm photobooth. Or simply set up a home studio in your bath tub for water play shots, like high speed exploding water balloons.
• Tag along with a surfer (or any other water athlete!) to get photos of them riding waves.

Photo credit: 1 Jen May Pastores, 2 Marina Miller, 3, 5, 7, and 9 Sarah Lee, 4 Sasha Leahovcenco, 8 Kitfox Valentin, 10 Anna Kim, Surfer by Aaron Rideout

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Photography doesn’t have to be all about fancy gadgets and technology. (Though sometimes it’s more fun that way.)

Like a master chef or Jackie Chan in a bar fight, it’s all about knowing what to do with whatever you have on hand.

If you just want some great-looking product shots for your Etsy shop, or tutorial photos for that Instructable you’re writing, you only need a simple home studio.

If you’ve got a tripod, a flash and a window, you’re more than halfway there already. Read on for how to make an inexpensive, so-simple-it’s-practically-zen photo setup.

The 5 Things You Need to Make a Studio

p.s. We’re hiring in and out of San Francisco: web developers, photographers, product buyers and sourcers, and writers!

p.p.s. Enter our Twitter challenge for a chance to be featured on the Photojojo Tumblr! Plus, congrats to Jenni Kowal for winning our weekly Facebook challenge!

Really? Only 5 Things?

Yeah! All you really need is a tripod, a window, a flash, a background and a bounce card.

Sure, you could get fancy studio gear, but why spend money when you don’t have to? You get the same results and nobody ever sees what’s outside the shot.

Here are the basics:

• Set up near the window
• Position the camera on the tripod
• Use the flash as a secondary light
• Make the background either interesting or inconspicuous
• Fill in shadows with the bounce card

Don’t have a flash or a tripod? That’s OK, you can still manage. Keep reading.

1: The Window

Set up your studio area as close to a window as you can. Just use the top of whatever furniture is handy, be it table, dresser or even a chair.

The window will be your main source of light. If the light is too bright or harsh, white curtains will diffuse and soften it. If you have no curtains, shoot at a time of day when your window gets less direct sunlight.

Position the studio area so the light hits it from one side. Sidelight looks nicer than shooting into the light or with your back to it.

2: The Tripod

There are two reasons to use a tripod.

1. It lets you take advantage of the window light by using longer exposures, and
2. it allows better control of how you set up the shot.

Once you get your light, background and fill set up, you won’t want to keep having to adjust the camera angle and where you’re standing. Use the tripod so your mind is free to do other things.

Don’t have a tripod? Get one, they’re cheap! You can make do by propping your camera up on a stack of books, or setting your shutter speed to 1/60th or faster so you can shoot handheld.

But seriously: get one. Even a cheap little tabletop one is totally useful and awesome.

3: The Flash

The main thing your flash needs to have is a movable swiveling head. Those white plastic diffuser caps are good to have too.

Use the flash to fill in the shadows cast by the window light. Swivel it around to bounce off the walls or ceiling until you get a look you like.

We generally default to firing the flash directly behind us; it fills in nicely without creating ugly glare or highlights.

Don’t have a flash unit? Make a film canister flash diffuser, or get one o’ them on-camera flash bouncers.

(p.s. If you want to know anything (ANYTHING) about lighting with flash, check out Strobist’s Lighting 101. We <3 that guy. We totally hope he's a millionaire by now.)

5: The Bounce Card

Bounce cards are the cheapest, most useful piece of photo equipment you can get.

Use a piece of white mat board, or tape a piece of copy paper to a piece of cardboard. Done.

Prop the card up next to the side of the object, just outside the shot. (Pick up a couple of L-brackets at the hardware store to use as supports.)

Adjust the angle until the reflection from the card lightens the shadows. It’s the simplest trick there is, but it makes a huge difference in how good your photos look.

You can make brighter bounce cards by wrapping a piece of tinfoil around a piece of cardboard. Keep a white card and a foil card around, and you’ll never fret about shadows again.

4: The Background

Backgrounds: interesting or inconspicuous? Depends on what else is happening in the shot, but a mix of the two is always a good bet.

We keep a stash of colored art paper to use as backgrounds–the 19×25 sheets you get at the art supply store.

They’re relatively cheap, they come in billions of colors, and they make a good-looking but unobtrusive background.

If the item you’re shooting is very small, try placing it on an old book or map. It adds interest, but if you keep the depth-of-field shallow enough it won’t be distracting.

Tips for Shooting

• Don’t forget to white balance, especially if you’re using a colored background. Use a coffee cup lid as a DIY white balancer!
• If you like the look you get from window light, you don’t need to use flash. Just tip in a bounce card to fill the shadows and go nuts.
• Want more tips on shooting small? Check out our guide to shooting for eBay, Etsy & Instructables!

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