You’ve spent months dreaming of this day  and selecting the perfect details to bring your vision to life.

Whether it’s a special function, casual party or a small gathering of friends, planning the look and selecting and co-ordinating the details is almost as much fun as the party itself. Whether it’s a wedding day or a special function you’ve been planning, the key to pulling the look together is in the details.

The overall effect is a culmination of all these small individual items that pull the look together. Often, prepping for small parties and functions is a solo job and by the time you’ve put the last piece in place your guests are starting to arrive and you invite them in in a flurry of excitement and the night begins without a second thought about capturing the beauty that you’ve just spent hours setting up.

Next time you have a function be intentional about capturing your efforts. you don’t have to wait until all the prep is finished, a lot of your images can be taken as you go. A bonus tip for free 😉 – before we start with the actual picture taking tips – when setting up your table make sure you complete one full side of the table so that you can use this side of the table as your canvas to implement the upcoming tips.  These tips are in no way the only ways you can enhance your detail shots, but they’re a good starting place to help you capture gorgeous detail shots of your special function – be it a baby shower, bridal shower or even your sweet baby’s very first birthday.

Make sure to capture the food.

Whether you’ve spent hours slaving away in the kitchen or had the function catered in, the food is a very big part of your function. Oftentimes the food table is a beautiful array of colours, textures and mouthwatering goodness. Snap countless images of this yummy goodness. Get pictures from above, from the front, get a wide shot, a close shot. Make user you capture the goody bags if it’s a party. You’ll be amazed at all the different ways you can capture a piece of cake!! Get creative – you can always select your favourites once you’re done, but you won’t be able to capture the goodness once it’s gone….

 

Change your angle

When capturing your details make sure you add a bit of extra interest to your images by changing the angle from which you shoot. By default, most people simply stand in front of the item they’re wanting to photograph and take the picture. Your image will come to life simply by changing your point of view. Crouch down, stand on a chair, move to the side. All of these things will give you a completely different look (of the same item) and elevate your pictures to the next level.

Get Close

A great way to capture interesting details shots is to get really close. This way the viewer is drawn right into the picture. And while you’re moving in closer – combine it with the tip above and change your angle. It’ll open your mind to so many new creative ideas!

Create layers of interest

An image that has depth is much more pleasing to the eye than an image that has no added layers. You might be wondering what I mean by depth or layers, so let me explain quickly. If you’re taking a picture of your babies birthday cake and all that is in the picture is the cake head-on, the image could appear rather flat and boring. To make the picture of the cake more interesting we can use other elements around the cake to layer in front or behind it to give the picture dimension and draw our eye to the cake. We can do this by using a floral arrangement in front of the cake to add a bit of blur in the foreground or make sure there are details behind the cake (like twinkle lights or presents etc). These are not always easy to achieve as they require you to have certain settings on your camera (more on this in an upcoming blog post) but you will have so much fun finding things to shoot through or using to create dimension that it will awaken your inner creativity.

And last but not least

Get the wide shot

Don’t forget to pull back and get an image of the overall look of your beautiful setup. It’ll be a sweet reminder of all your hard work long after all the fun is over.

I’m hoping that I have inspired you to grab your camera the next time you have a function and make sure you capture all the beautiful details you took so long to choose and set up. Most of these tips can be implemented in all of your photography and are by no means only for detail shots. I hope they have got you thinking about all the ways you can improve your overall photography and your creativity at the same time. Feel free to pop a comment below to add any other tips you think will be helpful to others when snapping their detail shots! 🙂

I hope you are enjoying these tips!! I would love to hear what other photography tips and tricks you’d like me to cover in the coming weeks. I look forward to your suggestions.

 

Happy Tuesday friends.

Mandy xxx