1. How to take makeup pictures with your camera
Most people probably have point&shoot digital cameras, some general tips how to best maximize your camera's settings.
Tips when using flash.
- If you have some manual settings, change the camera's ISO level to as low as you can. An ISO of 100 or even a 50 if you have one is good. The higher the ISO setting, the more light your camera will "absorb" to the image. For example, if you are in a darker room and want to take a picture WITHOUT flash, you would set the ISO to 400 or 800 because the camera will take more light in. But when you are using flash, the flash provides a bright light to hit your subject, so a low ISO setting is adequate. You can usually change the ISO levels in the menu settings.
If you don't use flash, make sure your face is getting hit by enough light (maybe stand next to a window) and use a faster shutter speed to avoid camera-shake. This is what makes pictures a bit blurry! Flash often prevents blurriness as long as you are holding the camera calmly.
Usually pictures that are "washed out" are the ones where the shutter speed is set too fast and the flash overexposes your skin tone and makeup. That, and the ISO setting is too high.
- Use a red-eye reduction function to prevent red eyes on pictures. This is usually a beam of light or a small flash before the main flash that will close your pupils.
Tips for White Balance.
This adjusts the colours on your picture and helps to prevent the yellow-ish tinge a lot of indoor pictures have. You can either select Automatic white balance which is usually the most practical, or you can select the different programs depending on the light condition, like Cloudy, Sunny, Tungsten, Halogen, etc. Play around and see what looks best and the most natural. You can also do Custom White Balance where you take a picture of something pure white in the propper light conditions and set that as your white balance, but I don't recommend this for most people as you have to set it for every shot you take and it can be hard to master.
