Group Photography: Tips and Beautiful Examples

We come into this world, we grow, we make friends, we look for opportunities and ultimately, we have to part with our friends and family members. Each one of us has been through this or will cross this path in our life eventually. We wish to live those beautiful and unforgettable moments again by turning back time which is obviously still a fiction. This is why we rely on photographs.

We are featuring group photographs today and group photographs are the perfect testimonials of age and experience. You will want to tell yourself you have live the best moments in life in the future therefore do not commit a corny group photographs. Instead of looking fun and young, it might look bored as dough. Therefore we are here to share some awesome group photographs that can give you inspiration on how to make a memorable group photo!

5 tips to better Group Photography

1. Routine to Break

Most of the group photograph I see down the line looks somewhat the same. They are all lack creativity because most photographers tend to follow a basic rule of just setting a group of people, standing stick still in front of the camera, count to 3, and press the shutter. The trick for capturing amazing group photographs is to break these photography rules. We all have a mind that has infinite creativity. Utilize it, be sure to throw yourself out of the comfort zone and be spontaneous. The outcome may surprise you.

Smile..1,2,3...Click...

2. It’s all about timing

A good timing is absolutely necessary for a good photograph. By saying good timing, I am not only emphasizing on suitable time of the day to take photographs, but also the correct timing to press the shutter release button. Having a good grasp on a correct timing to shoot a picture will reduce your efforts of taking multiple shots for the same thing in the chase of that "perfect shot".

3. Lights, lights, lights

Lights are everything, period. Light is actually the ultimate factor in photography. Any good or awesome pictures are determined by skillful lighting control. And that’s exactly what a photographer might lack of. Here are some tips on how to use lights effectively:

• Make sure everything is brightly lit and there is no shadow overlay on any of the faces.
• If possible, use strobe lights. They always give better results
• Ever thought of reflection while considering lights?

Image credit.
Bonus: Did I just say that "Lights are everything"? Well, I also said "Break the rules". Have a look at the following photograph :D. Ultimately again, it’s your creativity with lights and shadows

4. Background Matters

In photography, background is as important as the subject itself. A photograph taken with the same subject in a field could sometimes result better than taking it in a closed room. Although it is subjective, changing backgrounds often results in better photographs. Take your family or group outside. Try photographing in a field or any open space where you can also use the larger surface area rather than just shooting in a room or a studio. Plus you will also have the benefit of natural lights :-)

5. Don’t stick to the ground

Perspective is what gives a photograph an edge over thousands of others. Want to take an edgy group photograph? Just don’t stick to the ground. By that I don’t mean that you should try out to anti-gravity, but just change your perspective. Take a group photograph from the second floor of a building while making your buddies stand on the ground. Alternatively, go down on your knees and shoot straight up! Use your imagination and just stay away from the ground.

Image credit.

Beautiful Examples of Group Photos

Last but not lease, we’ll end the article with a showcase of some creative and beautiful group photos. Enjoy!

(via smashpoppler)

(via macmoov)

(via vstrash)

(via kellyhofer)

(via chelseaelizabethphotography)

(via talikf)

(via d1production)

(via gloriazelaya)

(via picture_bunny)

(via churchillcarling)

(via laura_sobenes)

(via Donna & Antti)


Source

Cynicism is Unbecoming

"Vast forests have already been sacrificed to the public debate about the Tea Party: what it is, what it means, where it's going. But after lengthy study of the phenomenon, I've concluded that the whole miserable narrative boils down to one stark fact: They're full of shit. All of them.

[. . .]

The individuals in the Tea Party may come from very different walks of life, but most of them have a few things in common. After nearly a year of talking with Tea Party members from Nevada to New Jersey, I can count on one hand the key elements I expect to hear in nearly every interview. One: Every single one of them was that exceptional Republican who did protest the spending in the Bush years, and not one of them is the hypocrite who only took to the streets when a black Democratic president launched an emergency stimulus program. ("Not me — I was protesting!" is a common exclamation.) Two: Each and every one of them is the only person in America who has ever read the Constitution or watched Schoolhouse Rock. (Here they have guidance from [Dick] Armey, who explains that the problem with "people who do not cherish America the way we do" is that "they did not read the Federalist Papers.") Three: They are all furious at the implication that race is a factor in their political views — despite the fact that they blame the financial crisis on poor black homeowners, spend months on end engrossed by reports about how the New Black Panthers want to kill "cracker babies," support politicians who think the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was an overreach of government power, tried to enact South African-style immigration laws in Arizona and obsess over Charlie Rangel, ACORN and Barack Obama's birth certificate. Four: In fact, some of their best friends are black! (Reporters in Kentucky invented a game called "White Male Liberty Patriot Bingo," checking off a box every time a Tea Partier mentions a black friend.) And five: Everyone who disagrees with them is a radical leftist who hates America.

It would be inaccurate to say the Tea Partiers are racists. What they are, in truth, are narcissists. They're completely blind to how offensive the very nature of their rhetoric is to the rest of the country. I'm an ordinary middle-aged guy who pays taxes and lives in the suburbs with his wife and dog — and I'm a radical communist? I don't love my country? I'm a redcoat? Fuck you! These are the kinds of thoughts that go through your head as you listen to Tea Partiers expound at awesome length upon their cultural victimhood, surrounded as they are by America-haters like you and me or, in the case of foreign-born president Barack Obama, people who are literally not Americans in the way they are."

Those are some of the entertaining bits from this report by Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone. Taibbi gets bogged down in the duplicity of Rand Paul and trades is some unfortunate analogies: "Tea Partiers . . . really don't pay attention to specifics too much. Like dogs, they listen to tone of voice and emotional attitude." After all, if we call it insulting and degrading when right wing wackos compare people to animals, it hardly is excusable to turn around and dehumanize the wackos. Hypocrisy is hypocrisy. And it is not useful.

The reason why the the party types are so reprehensible is that, unlike dogs, they should be able to marshal some semblance of self-reflection. We fail them for not managing to do so. Finally, Taibbi goes more or less wholly off the rails in the final paragraph.

The bad news is that the Tea Party's political outrage is being appropriated, with thanks, by the Goldmans and the BPs of the world. The good news, if you want to look at it that way, is that those interests mostly have us by the balls anyway, no matter who wins on Election Day. That's the reality; the rest of this is just noise. It's just that it's a lot of noise, and there's no telling when it's ever going to end.

If the deck is as stacked as all that why write critical political analysis - or argue back with tea party types - in the first place?
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* Thanks Jörg!