Spring and summer are the best times for an outdoor photo opp with bright colors and natural light. Flowers in full bloom, tender and bright greens, bright blue skies, ducks and geese in lakes, inviting swimming pools and heart-warming picnics – all offer opportunities to save memories in your digital camera. And if you like sending your family and friends hand-crafted greeting cards, this is the time to get great pictures to personalize your photo cards.
Photo cards are a fun way to share the light and happy moments of your life. You can send one to a friend with whom you shared the moment. To someone you have not seen for a long time, a personalized photo card will convey what you have been up to recently and help you stay in touch.
Making photo cards is an enjoyable DIY project for kids and adults alike. Use your creativity to come up with a theme for your photo card. You can have humorous and witty wordings for a friend. Put in something sober for your grand-parents. Have a simple greeting in words or print a poem. You can add some art work if you like – hole-punch around the borders of the photo card and thread a ribbon through them. Or stick paper flowers inside the card. You can also add fragrance to your photo cards.
No matter what art you choose to put on your card, it is important for your photo to stand out. For this, you must pay attention to the following.
• For a good quality print, the most important rule is to have the maximum possible resolution on your camera – a 4-5 megapixel resolution is desirable for 4″x6″ prints.
• Capture your digital photos in raw file format. Unlike JPEG, the raw format does not use internal processing that can affect the colors, brightness and saturation of the picture.
• Use high ISO settings to keep your camera’s sensitivity to light high. But do not set it too high as it can create a noisy image.
• For an outdoor photo opp, if the light is too glaring, you could lose some colors and details in your digital photos. Use a polarizing lens or simple place your sunglasses in from of the camera lenses and shoot your scenery. This will cut out the glare, enhance the red and yellow tones and give your photos a warm feel.
• If the backdrop is very bright but your subjects are in a shade, use your camera’s flash.
• You can play with the white balance settings on your camera to capture the colors in your scenery very accurately.
• Have your subjects dress in bright colors so that they stand out in a color-rich backdrop.
• Use a tripod to give yourself stability while shooting.
• Use image editing software to enhance your pictures if you have some blur or insufficient contrast and brightness.
• When you print the photos, use the best picture quality settings on your printer. For the best effects, use glossy or matte finished photo paper for the prints.
• You can also derive black and white or sepia tinted digital photos from the color photos using software. Use these old-fashioned styles to give your photo card an antique look.
You can design your entire photo card on the computer with the wordings and simply print the finished card. Alternatively, you can print the photos and stick them on hand-crafted cards. You can even put a collage of photos in one card.
Some of the spontaneous and less formal moments are the best ones to send out in a personalized photo card. So keep your photo opps fun-filled and light-hearted.
