Firework Tips

With Your Phone or Camera

• Pick a good spot in advance: Before the fireworks even start, you should try to get yourself in a good position: staying upwind of the fireworks will keep the smokey aftermath of previous blasts from gumming up your shot. If you go to the same spot every year try different areas. I wander around sometimes because there is a carnival where I go and get some interesting foregrounds. 

• Stability: Remember, you're taking photos at night so a little bit of shakiness from slower shutter speeds can turn your photo into a blurry mess. Brace yourself against a picnic table or even sit down on the ground if possible. If you're in a crowd, get cozy with your neighbor for support. I used a little gorilla tripod wrapped around my fold up chair arm.

• Frame before you shoot: Figure out where in the sky fireworks are blowing up and position your phone in advance. You don't want to chase the shot, you want your phone to be in the right place already.


 •Try shooting in bursts . Get that Multi shot going you may be off by half a second and last year I only got the one shot of fireworks and lightning.

•Bring extra everything. Make sure you have everything charged and empty. Memory Batteries go quickly and you never know how long it will last and how many photos you want to take. I also bring all my cameras no matter what they are and hand them out to people who didn't bring a camera or when I run out of memory and don't have time to reload.  

• Use the AE/AF lock: Once your phone's in position, don't take your shot right away. On the iPhone and many Android phones tapping the screen locks in the exposure and focus for your shot. Use one firework for metering, and then take the photo of the next.

• Don't be afraid of portrait mode: Usually we loathe portrait mode, but here's one instance where it might capture a better photo. This is not an ordinary snapshot. Depending on the scenery and your perspective, both landscape and portrait photos might work well—heck even experiment with crooked angles to see what gets the best results.

• Don't zoom Or Focus: We realize that the fireworks are SO FAR AWAY but the digital zoom on camera phones is only an illusion. Don't use it. You can always crop the photo later. Autofocus probably won’t be of any use to you and may actually interfere with your shots so I suggest just turning it off.  

Or try changing the zoom while taking the exposure like this  guy

• Keep it native: Speaking of later, third-party apps introduce additional lag to your phone's camera. Keep your timing sharp by using your built-in camera app, and upload it to Instagram later.

• Go video :Sometimes I'll just shoot video and later pause the video and do a screenshot of that. Way better than the standard blurry photo

• Always use the lowest ISO setting & Highest Quality Setting
In the digital world; long exposures, higher ISO settings, and even higher temperatures can introduce noise into your digital photographs. You can’t avoid long exposures when shooting fireworks, but you can always choose a lower ISO setting. 200 worked for me.

 •Review when you can but it can always wait till later. Reviewing helps you tweak your settings but once you get in the groove you need to conserve battery so keep that screen off as long as possible. 


• DPhoto Journal recommends three different aperture/ISO combinations that work for many circumstances.
• Digital Photography School instructs us that using "bulb mode" exposure will allow you to tweak the shutter speed perfectly.
• Photodoto really nails the practicality, instructing how to compensate your settings depending on the types of wonky shots you're capturing.

Holiday photos

Here are a few links on taking the best photos for the holidays.

Ornaments Trees and lights Helpful tips

Group tips   Holiday tips

Use a tripod:

One with the flash one without

Have good Lighting

Take lots of pictures

 Don't wait until one shoot early in the countdown

 Simple backgrounds

Don’t stress your lens-type

Get close to your subject:

Use the timer on your camera [or a remote]:

Check your histogram:

Experiment:

Keep Your Shutter Speed Above 1/80

The biggest culprit of bad snapshots is motion-blur. If you are shooting in low light without a flash, most cameras in auto will choose a shutter speed that is way too low. Move to shutter priority mode ("S" on most cameras) and just keep it at 1/100. Many say 1/60 is good enough, but 1/100 is a safer bet amidst the chaos of a family gathering.

Shoot in bursts

If you are taking candids, it can be hard to capture the one split-second where the baby cracks a smile. Use your camera's burst mode and fire off 3 or 4 shots so you don't miss the magic moment.

Get candid

This is fairly obvious, but well-done candids are always more memorable than posed portraits. If you think about it, it's kind of creepy having dozens of shots of people grinning wide-eyed at the camera. Candids are harder, however, and you have to take a lot to have a good set of keepers. So don't be shy.

Get back!

Everyone focuses on faces and smiles, usually at the neglect of the bigger picture. Step back and snap a couple of nice wide shots of the entire room full of people—far enough away to hide your drunk uncle's drool and your grandmother's creepy stares.

Break People's Bad Picture Habits

Some people have a gut reaction whenever they see a camera pointed at them to look at it, freeze, and smile. If your subjects do this, don't take their picture! Either politely lower your camera until they resume doing less contrived things—or simply tell them to stop it.

Use fast prime lenses

Most traditional holiday activities are indoors and in dim light. In these conditions, fast prime lenses (f/1.2-f/1.8) will let you take better images without resorting to that 1,000,000 ISO setting with more noise than photo. Also, you will be able to achieve those great shallow depth-of-field shots that make any family photo album look pro. If you can, have a good wide angle and a good medium-telephoto lens on hand.

Shoot scenery and decor

Again, you gotta move past boring ol' faces. A set of photos should tell a story, and that includes the locale, the decor, the food, the weather. ALL OF IT.

5 Common File Types in Photography and When You Should Use Each One

by Michael Archambault

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You’ve spent the last few hours working on the perfect photo shoot and everything went better than you could have possibly imagined. After importing the RAW files to your PC and making a few edits in Photoshop, it is time to save your masterpiece. But, what file type do you select? With over twenty different file types to choose from, we are here to break down some of the most popular and tell you a bit about their strengths and weaknesses.

The well-known JPEG format is the standard for compatibility. No matter how you wish to share your photographs, whether on a social network or to a print shop, the JPEG is likely to be supported. JPEG is great for sharing photos because you know there won’t be any trouble reading the format.

There are downsides to saving as a JPEG, though. For starters, the file format doesn’t support transparency within images. Debatable compression quality also means you may not get the desired standards you are seeking when you hit the save button. Some users suggest that saving a JPEG with maximum quality will produce acceptable results, but others have yet to be convinced.

Best For: Sharing Images online with friends or family.

The Photoshop format, also referred to by its ‘PSD’ file extension, is the default format for saving your work. It provides compatibility across a number of Adobe products including Illustrator, InDesign Premiere, and After Effects. It is one of the only formats that can save a file with all Photoshop features accounted for, such as layers and applied effects.

Despite being an excellent way to preserve every adjustment you have made in Photoshop, the PSD file is not generally accepted when sharing images since your client must be in the Adobe ecosystem in order to open it. PSD is useful for saving your work so you can easily return to the file to resume work. In most cases, PSD should be confined to your workspace.

Best For: Saving files on your workspace so you can return and edit later.

The PNG format is a lossless file type, which means it can preserve your images without any loss in image quality. The format itself was based on the GIF file type, but allows for higher bit rate pictures and can preserve background transparency while minimizing jagged edges. PNG is an excellent format for displaying images on the web that require transparent elements.

Downsides to the PNG format typically include a large file size; this means that while PNG is excellent for the web, it should be used sparingly and only when needed for transparency purposes. Overusing PNG images on a web server could result in a slower experience for end users and increased bandwidth costs for the site owner.

Best For: Preserving transparency for images on the web.

The Tagged-Image File Format (TIFF) is an extremely flexible format that is one of the best for saving your prized images on your Mac or PC. TIFF is compatible with almost all image-editing and graphics applications currently available. In addition, TIFF supports a large number of color standards including CMYK, RGB, Lab, Indexed Color, and Grayscale Images.

Similar to PNG, TIFF is also able to preserve transparency with the bonus of including alpha channels, which dictate the specific degree of transparence. TIFF files can also save Photoshop layers so they can be edited or rearranged at a later time. If you are saving an HDR image with immense dynamic range, TIFF can save images at a rate of up to 32-bits-per-channel.

TIFF files can pack a lot of information, but can also become quite large due to this fact. In addition, while TIFF is compatible with various image-editing programs, not every social networking site or device will be able to properly display the files. TIFF is best reserved for archiving images on your PC to preserve quality or for high-quality printing.

Best For: Archival purposes and retaining maximum quality.

The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) has been included on this list simply so that we can tell you to avoid it. GIF images are extremely compressed files specifically designed to increase transfer speed over the internet. PNG was developed as an alternative to the GIF while maintaining quality far beyond what the GIF is capable of storing.

The only time a GIF image should generally be used is for low-quality web graphics that feature animation. GIF feature a limited color range and are not suited for reproducing high-quality images in today’s world. An animated GIF of a silly cat, however, is acceptable.

Best For: Low-resolution animated images for the web.

10 Beliefs That Suck the Life out of Photographers

What if I told you that it’s not the industry, the bad economy, where you live, what camera you shoot with, how many lights you have or how small your Facebook following is that is holding you back. None of those are truly capable of stopping you, they are only challenges for you to meet — the same challenges everyone who creates art or starts a business has to meet and beat.

The things that are truly holding you back are your own beliefs. Belief that it IS one of those reasons above. Believing that it is a geography thing that keeps you from excelling, or what gear you use or how many lights you take with you is more damaging than any REAL challenge you will ever have to meet.
Because they have no substance, these limiting beliefs can grow to fit any size needed to keep you from moving forward. If it was simply a wall in front of you, there would be many different ways to move on. Scale it, go around it, blow it up… all sorts of ways to get it done.
But if the wall is a creation inside your mind, there is no way around it, it will grow higher than any ladder you have and it becomes impervious to any and all attempts to blow it up. It does this insidiousness because we want it to. We control its size and power.
So lets look at ten beliefs and maybe offer a suggestion on how they may be more in our heads than in our reality.

#1: We must have professional level gear to be a pro.

No. We may need it at some point, but before we get to that point we need to make a gazillion images with the gear we have. And if we cannot make images that people want to pay us for with what we have, chances are they will still not want to buy them when they are made with pro gear. A crappy image is a crappy image no matter how many pixels there are.

#2: We have to live in a big city.

No. You may have to have access to a big city, but then again you do have Internet, FedEx, the USPS, and a phone. There are many photographers who are working for major clients while living in the rural town of their choice. They simply wanted to live there more than the big city, and they found the ways to do it.

#3: We must have a portfolio equal to Avedon or McCurry to even be considered.

No. We must have a portfolio of course. And it must have wonderful images in it, but everyone starts somewhere, and clients know that. You may not get picked up by Vogue for a shoot with a small portfolio, but there are indeed other magazines that will hire you, and pay you, and help you build your work to be worthy of Vogue.

#4: We have to have thousands of hours experience.

No… mostly. We DO need experience. We DO need to have some work under our belts in order to get the big gigs. But we need to do a lot of small gigs to build a book that will get us the bigger gigs… and then the really big gigs. It is a process, one that starts small and grows.

#5: We must never work for free.

No. Working for free is sometimes the ONLY way to get the experience, credibility and inroads that allow us to work for pay. NEVER be exploited by working for free, but learn to recognize opportunity as a huge currency that is many times worth more than the paltry fees the gig may pay. (Note: If you are not sure which is which, you may NOT be ready… so keep working on learning the business.)

#6: We must have a huge Internet following to be considered.

No. In fact most working photographers have only a portfolio and simple blog. Some do indeed have a big following on some social platforms, but the majority do not. Instead they have a following of clients that they work hard for, and couldn’t care less about social media fame.
The working world still has not caught up to the interwebs, and although I do think that building a solid online brand is important, it will mean less than diddly when you are pitching a real client for a real gig.

#7: We obviously suck because the pros do it so easily.

No. The pros simply have more experience, more hours setting up lights, a ton of history in doing that same thing, and they are still busting their butts to make it more perfect, more special than last time. They do make it LOOK easy, but take it from me – they are still sweating bullets. They’re just better at hiding it than you are.

#8: “All we need is…”

No. We call that the magic bullet syndrome. All we need is “one good job” or “that new lens” or “a bigger studio” or… NO. There is no magic bullet, no shortcut, no “easy” button or challenge buster that can be purchased. There is only a commitment to the struggle, and a focus on the outcome.

#9: Professional photographers are special, with special talents and special lives.

No. They are just like everyone else. They (aside from a very select few) didn’t get there by luck, or anointment – they worked hard and long and with focus to get to that point. Yes, some have incredible ways of seeing the world, but then they have worked at that as well. You see, they take a lot of photographs — a heck of a lot of photographs — to develop that vision.

#10: No one is able to make a living in this business anymore.

No. That is horse apples. There are thousands of working commercial photographers. And they are going to be shooting tomorrow. Some you may know, and most you will not have heard of – or from. Not every photographer is on Facebook whining about how bad it is out there… only the ones for whom it is bad out there.
And I can assure you for every photographer that is complaining or whining about it, there is one doing it. Making the images, doing the marketing, creating their vision and always ALWAYS holding that picture of what will be in front of their eyes.
Yes, there are a lot of other challenges that must be met. It is a different world than it was a dozen or two years ago, but it is still an occupation that has growth and possibilities. They youngsters know it. One couple turned weekend trips into free image giveaways that is now making them a a tidy living while starting to accept assignments. Another photographer who shoots for major corporations lives in a tiny town in West Texas. I know a product shooter who lives in Portland, and is marketing all over his region — and nationally.
I am not a Pollyanna, but I am a positive person when it comes to people and their capabilities. You may have to give up some things in order to do other things – we call that “duh” – but that is still in your control. Watch less TV, spend more time making pictures, capture a weekend a month for project work, and make building your photography business a priority.
Whether you want to go into business or simply make better photographs, the power to do that lies within you. What you listen to, what you agree with, and the people that influence you all have a big measure of influence on how you see yourself and this world of images.
You can control that measure of influence. It is YOUR life, and I would suggest you stop participating in the pity parties and the “oh whoa is us” crowd and make images. Obviously it didn’t work out for them, and now their main goal is to stop you from making it a go. What would it mean to them if you succeeded where they failed.
It’s far easier to blame the world for their failures than to watch someone else actually win. And even if that is not reality, it can become their reality if they believe it strong enough.
Before you believe everything question everything. When someone says “nobody can make a living in this anymore” look around for someone who is, and find out what they are doing. If something sounds improbable, it may be. Research it. Nail it down.
There is a simple way to work around these challenges. Make more images. Make images that compel others to view them. Making images is the best possible thing that photographers can do to advance their work and their business. So put this computer away and go out into the world… click, baby, click!

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About the author: Don Giannatti is a photographer, designer, and writer who has never owned a Subaru or an Escalade. He once owned a PT Cruiser, but that it a long and tortured story not fit for telling without a few beers. He lives and works in Phoenix, Arizona, and prefers Mexican food to anything else. In fact, there may not be anything else. You can visit his website here and his online portfolio here. This article originally appeared here.

How To Find Inspiration And Take Interesting Photos In Boring Locations

Regardless of where you live, chances are there’s some really incredible places to take photos nearby. The problem is, after looking at and photographing the same thing over and over again, it becomes increasingly difficult for us to see the beauty in it anymore. As a photographer, having the ability to find inspiration in the most boring, redundant, or even cliched locations is invaluable.
It’s frustrating, but, fortunately not all is lost. In the video below, Mike Brown invites us into his own backyard, a place he’s photographed a 1000 different ways already, to show us a few methods he uses to get the creative juices flowing when our eyes can’t see beyond routine.

Quick Tips To Help You Find Photos

As convenient as it would be, an interesting composition won’t always be obvious. Some times you’ll just have to go looking for it. Here’s a few pointers to get you started off in the right direction:

• Look for interesting light, don’t just wait for something to catch your eye by chance. Examine your surroundings thoroughly and seek out areas where the light is good enough to help add interest to an otherwise boring shot.
• Even if a composition isn’t jumping out at you at first, start by taking some basic shots. As you focus on taking photos, you’ll notice your mind and creativity becoming more active by coming up with fresh ideas to try.
• Shoot a lot of test shots and ask how you can make them better each time and try making the photo again until you’ve got it just right.
• Go out by yourself and take your time. You’ll want to allow yourself plenty of time to experiment with ideas and discover different perspectives, lighting, etc…Go it alone, if possible, so you don’t feel pressured to rush.
• Explore the scene. Shoot low, shoot high, shoot wide, shoot tight.

Remember, next time you find yourself struggling to get excited about photographing something, the key is to just start taking photos and experimenting. The more thought you put into, the more interested and involved you will find yourself. And even if you’re not in love with any of the photos you took, at the very least you got in a great practice session for next time.

About Tiffany Mueller

Tiffany Mueller is a photographer based in Hawi, Hawaii. You can follow her Twitter here and her personal life here.

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Using Natural Light

Different ways and quick sheet sheets for using natural light 

Paparazzi to the Stars

 

Dave's Free Star Photography Tutorial 

Overview: Star photography seems like a daunting task, but trust me it's much easier than you think. When I first picked up a camera and decided to capture some shots of the night sky I could barely see a light at the end of the tunnel. Now, a few months and a few hundred shots later that light is shining bright and I’m here to share with you the information and experiences I gained along the way. But wait, there is one problem, from your vantage point there may be a million and one factors keeping you from seeing the mesmerizing beauty of space or the Milky Way. Most of us live in locations where cloud cover, smog and light pollution are the number one enemy of the night sky photographer. That’s where I come in, armed with my tutorials, presets, and simple tricks you will have all the ammunition necessary to defeat the odds and capture the beauty of space and the galaxy that lies beyond. I do have a few small errands for everyone to run prior to departing on our trip, so grab a sturdy tripod, wide angle lens, a camera with manual mode functionality and your imagination, let’s head for the stars. 

I'll start out by answering the most frequently asked question of all, "How do I find the Milky Way in the sky?". Well unfortunately it is a very easy answer,  if you can’t see the Milky Way with your naked eye, it will be very hard to capture any better on camera. That being said let's get started!

What You Need:

-A very dark night. I always check the moon phase prior to shooting. If the moon is out you are not going to capture the Milky Way very well. The less “light pollution” the better. This link should help you to find some dark spots in your part of the world.

Light Pollution Map

-Tripod, the sturdier & taller the better. I have a 72” tripod by Really Right Stuff which is great for shooting stars due to the fact that I can look up at my camera while shooting.

If your interested in all the equipment I use head on over to the What's in My Camera Bag section of the website.

-A Camera with Manual Mode functionality.

Here are a few great apps & computer programs that I like to use prior to going out for a star shoot as well as in the field.

PhotoPills - If you want one amazing app that does it all for photography, THIS IS IT! I have been using it for the past few weeks and fell in love.Click on the link above for full functionality, there is a lot of it, packaged in a really nice & user friendly app.

Star Walk Astronomy Guide for "i" Devices - Recently this is my go to for finding where the Milky Way will rise on the horizon. Using this app and holding it up to the sky you will be able to see, in real time, where all the constellations & other planitary bodies lie within the sky.

The Photographers Ephemeris - I use this program nearly every time I shoot for sunrise and sunset. For star photography it is always good to know when the moons rises and sets and how bright/big it will be on any given night, this program also provides that functionality.  You can also pick it up on your iPhone for 7.99$, which is well worth it, trust me!

Stellarium - This is a free program which allows you to plan were the stars you want to shoot will appear in the sky. The learning curve is a bit steep, but well worth the effort. Plus you learn a lot about our Universe in the process.

The next few items will extremely improve your star shots but are not necessary.

-A timer, especially if you do not have a 35mm sensor. This is key for taking exposures longer than 30 seconds.

-A wide angle lens with a very “fast” aperture. Meaning the number under the “f” is low.  This will help you to pick up as much light as possible. 

-I shoot with my Nikkor14-24mm f/2.8G or Nikkor 16mm f/2.8 Fisheye lens for all my star shots. At f/2.8 they are both VERY fast lenses.

The 500 Rule:

Some people call this the 600 rule, but 500 is much more conservative for a sharper image which makes a great baseline to start with & is key to getting clear star or Milky Way shots. To obtain the maximum exposure time you can shoot, without getting visible "trails" behind your stars, take the number 500 and divide it by the focal length you will be shooting at. For those of you that are not shooting with full frame cameras make sure to take this into account. I have provided a chart that gives a few common sensor sizes and their maximum exposure times. This will also help you understand how the rule works. If you exceed the noted maximum exposure time the picture will exhibit "star trails". Keep in mind that this max exposure time is just a baseline ( rule of thumb ), feel free to move up or down from it depending on your camera setup, experimentation is once again key. Feel free to print out this chart and keep it in your camera bag when going out to shoot the night sky.

For more click here 

DSLR Facts Tips

Custom Picture Controls

Picture Controls or Picture Styles depending on what brand you have are applied to every picture you take except RAW this is why some people shy away from RAW format the contrast, sharpness, and color saturation is not applied by an algorithm. Post production allows you to create the perfect touches and really clean up your photo exactly how you want.

Changing the picture control if you shoot in RAW will not affect the image you see on the computer, but it will help you see what you’re capturing on the camera. To set a custom picture control or picture style, go to your menu and find the custom picture control setting. 

 

Multiple Exposure 

Though not available on all DSLRs the camera takes 2 or 3 (or more) photos in a row and then combines them to create one picture. You can do the same thing in photoshop by fading each picture in the order you took them using Opacity.   

Lincoln Harris

Time Lapse

Nikon only Great for nature and slow events it is labeled as “Interval timer shooting.”

Time Before Screen Sleeps

All DSLRs allow the photographer to adjust how long a photo is displayed before the screen goes to sleep. It is usually listed under settings/ the little wrench and LCD display 5-10 seconds is good if you like to look things over. Your battery does drain quicker so if you make the display turn off quicker or off all together you save battery and don't annoy people while taking pictures at a public event.  

Flash Compensation

The camera will determine how much flash output is needed, and then the photographer can adjust as needed.  

Depth-of-Field Preview

Adjusting the aperture changes the depth of field but you cant tell what it looks like until you take the photo. Most DSLR cameras have a small black button on the front of the camera just to the left (camera left) of the lens.  If you look through the viewfinder and press the button, it will make the screen go a bit darker, but it will also show you how the depth-of-field will look when you take the picture.

Back Button Focus

Allows you to take many photos at different angles without having to re-adjust your focus as long as you stay at the same distance. If something closer gets in the way you can quickly get back to your subject. 

 read more here

Jim Harmer

 

Working With Low Light

Photography Lighting: how to master shooting in low light

jmeyer

From dimly lit interiors to shooting outdoors before sunrise or after sunset, shooting in low light presents very different challenges to shooting in bright conditions.

It’s often difficult to get the right exposure using the automatic modes in dark conditions, so you’ll need to master Manual mode.

These conditions can also make things like focusing and white balance more challenging, but it’s worth overcoming them, because shooting in low light can result in stunning images.

Exposing in low light

Shooting in darker conditions can play havoc with your camera’s exposure settings, especially if you’re using any of the automatic exposure modes, because the subject will rarely contain a normal range of tones.

In most low-light situations you will get much better, and more predictable, results by switching to Manual.

If the subject contains mainly dark tones you’ll find that your camera will over-expose your shots. This is easily visible, as there will be too much detail in the shadow areas.

The best way to assess the exposure is to take a test shot, and then check the histogram graph. If there’s a gap to the left, the image is over-exposed so you need to use a faster shutter speed, smaller aperture or lower ISO.

When it comes to choosing the exposure settings for shooting in low light you have some decisions to make.

Firstly, do you need to use a fast shutter speed to freeze movement or prevent camera shake if you are handholding the camera, or are you happy to put the camera on a tripod and use long shutter speeds?

To use a fast shutter speed in low light you’ll have to use a high ISO setting, such as 800 or above. But when using a tripod you should set a lower ISO such as 200 or lower for the best quality.

PAGE 1: Exposing in low light
PAGE 2: Shooting in twilight vs complete darkness
PAGE 3: How to shoot handheld in low light

READ MORE

The secret to great comedy

Timing

 

25 perfectly timed photos that define right place, right moment

 

courtesy of the internet

You don't need Photoshop to get some great photos but always be aware of your surroundings and try to take at least two of every photo in case something sneaks in you don't want.  

 

"This gallery of strange, wonderful and funny photos posted by Redditors over the last year is a fine reminder to keep snapping, no matter how mundane your surroundings. With the right timing and perspective, a run-of-the-mill pic can be elevated to new heights of head-scratching greatness. The world truly is a surreal and entertaining place if you keep your eyes peeled."

Click to see more on msnNOW.com, updated 24 hours a day.

 

 

One Focal Length Exposures

Some advice from a fun weekly challenge/article I read called Shooting Challenge

By:Mark Wilson

Ever take a handheld photo that you thought was amazing, only to see it larger and realize that you totally blew it by shaking the tiniest bit? Well, you can limit these mistakes using a simple rule.

The Technique

We know, the tripod is the surest way to get a perfectly sharp photo, but what about 99% of the time when we shoot handheld? How are we sure we get the sharpest possible shot?

There's an old trick to make sure you're using a fast enough shutter speed all the time, no matter what camera you pick up with any lens. It's called the 1/FL or 1/focal length rule, and it basically states that you can turn your focal length (or lens) into a fraction that becomes a suitable exposure speed.

Dealing with people and Poses

Here is a fun guide to help with the difficult task of posing a model or better yet making yourself look good in a picture. You can also study many magazine or other professional photos and see what are the best angles. Straight on is never good and yet that is the most common pose people do. Adding a twist of the hip dramatically cuts down on width for you ladies or a slight angle of the head elongates the neck. You don't have to be a gymnast to take a good photo. Your mom was right posture is important and don't slouch.  
More Ideas