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Grab Great Holiday Shots This Evening: 5 Tips For Shooting With Your New Camera
So, What Did You Get?
The 12 Days Of Christmas Digital Storm Computer Giveaway Winner

Grab Great Holiday Shots This Evening: 5 Tips For Shooting With Your New Camera

Posted: 25 Dec 2010 09:52 AM PST

So you got that new camera eh? Congrats! Now the whole family will expect you to be the camera guy at all of the get-togethers. Not only that, you’re probably trying to take pictures of the kids opening their gifts. Here are a few helpful tips on how to do it:

1. Sometimes, it’s okay to use auto mode – You just got the camera. Unless you’re upgrading from one DSLR to another, leave manual mode alone today. Set it to Auto, put up the flash, and let the camera make the decisions. The company that made your camera has spent millions investing in the CPU that controls Auto mode, put it to work!

2. If you have an external flash, get it off your camera – When taking portrait shots, it’s best not to use the flash that’s physically on your camera; you’ll end up with hard unflattering light. You should be able to make that external flash work remotely, or at the bare minimum bounce it off the ceiling instead of pointing it at people. Bouncing off the ceiling also means your offspring won’t have evil red eyes. Well, unless they were born that way.

3. You don’t need a tripod – Using a tripod in the house is silly. Just turn the ISO up a bit, and the camera will do just fine with less light. If you don’t know how to change your ISO yet, see tip number one. The exception to this rule is video. Unless your camera has stabilization, use a tripod. Or you’ll end up making everyone seasick with your “shakycam” holiday video.

4. Shoot low – Shots of kids opening gifts will look better if you get down on their level. So sit your butt down on the floor. You’ll end up with more natural shots, and better memories. Also, don’t wait for that “perfect” shot; remember you don’t have develop film any more so, you can delete any shots that don’t turn out how you want.

5. Have fun – Taking pictures should be fun, not an exercise in terror for your family as you make them pose into a Norman Rockwell scene. Let the kids rip and tear into those gifts; a natural looking scene will be more fun for everyone when you post them on Facebook for Aunt Faith in Mississippi to see.

Happy holidays to everyone, no matter who/how you celebrate, and have fun with your new gear!

So, What Did You Get?

Posted: 25 Dec 2010 07:04 AM PST

src="http://www.crunchgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Photo1-620x463.jpg"
alt="" title="Photo1" width="620" height="463" class="aligncenter
size-medium wp-image-192026" /> Good morning! Hope all is well.
I’m sitting on the couch eating fake food from my daughter’s new
plastic kitchen and my son is playing with a “Darda Power Loop
Pyramid,” a completely mechanical race set that throws two light
model cars through multiple loops. It’s actually very cool. I got a
pasta maker and my wife made me labels for the wine I make. As far
as I can tell, most things are right with the world. How are you
guys doing? As a special bonus, I’ll send a special J-List goofy
product package next week to one commenter, chosen at random. Just
because we love you.

UPDATE – The day just got better. The plumber came and
found impacted waste in the toilet vent. Santa must have put it
there.

The 12 Days Of Christmas Digital Storm Computer Giveaway Winner

Posted: 25 Dec 2010 06:07 AM PST

Happy holidays, dear readers! From everyone here at CrunchGear, thank you for making 2010 a blockbuster year for us. Your daily allegiance to our little site does not go unnoticed and our 12 Days of Christmas giveaways were the very least we could do. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough gear to give everyone something. Sorry. You must know that we would give everyone something if we could.

Anyway, onto the winner of the big prize: A top-tier gaming system with a retail cost of nearly $2,300 from Digital Storm. We had just under 4,000 entries to win this one system, but we only have one to give away and we contacted the winner this morning via email so we’re happy to say that this one system is going to Kyle from Colorado. Congratulations, sir. We hope you enjoy it.

So once again, thanks. We have the best readers on the Internet and truly hope you and your family have a safe and joyous holiday season.