Setting Up The Shot

• 1). Set up your camera closer to your subject than you normally would. Even if you are photographing a large subject, a wide-angle lens allows you to include the entire subject without standing a long way back.
  
  
• 2). Use a tripod to hold the camera. This prevents the camera from shaking during exposure. Stability is especially important if your shutter speed is 1/60th, 1/30th, 1/15th or slower. Be aware that shutter speeds listed on your camera speed knob will not usually display the fraction, but rather just the whole number. So for the above fractions, your shutter speed knob will read 60, 30, 15, 8, etc. Even though the actual numbers are decreasing, the time that the camera lens remains open is increasing. So with each incremental step to a lower number, the exposure time increases, as does the likelihood that the camera will move or shake. So for any number at or below 60, use a tripod.
  
  
• 3). Use available natural light. This can be light from a window or a skylight. If a strong source of natural light is available, set up your picture so the natural source is your main lighting.
  
  
• 4). Be aware of detail. A wide-angle lens picks up lots of detail when it is near the subject. You can use this quality of the wide-angle lens to create a fascinating picture.
  
  
• 5). Use bounce lighting. Because you are so close to the subject, lighting should be diffused and indirect. One way to do this is with lighting reflected off a white translucent umbrella. "Bounce lighting" is a term used when light from an artificial source hits another surface before it is directed to the main object. This reflective surface can be an umbrella that the photographer has brought to the scene or it can be an existing part of an interior structure.
  
  
• 6). Light the side areas of the photograph. It is important that all areas of the picture have adequate light. Bouncing a floodlight off a distant wall or ceiling to the side areas is a good way to provide additional lighting.
  
  
• 7). Bracket your exposures. Don't take just one picture at the calculated exposure; also take a picture that lets in more light and one that lets in less light. This can done by adjusting either the shutter speed or the lens aperture.