Blog | Nixplay

Photographs give us a valuable glimpse into the past. Even when our memories begin to fade, photographs give us a visual that can last a lifetime. Given their importance, it makes sense that everyone wants to look their best when a camera peeks around the corner. After all, photos don’t sit in dusty albums on the bookshelf anymore. They are shared with friends and family near and far, both on social media, and on digital WiFi cloud frames.With such innovation, you’ll want more than a few family photos to share. Here are some useful photography tips to help you take great family photography this winter season:

Avoid Posing and Forced Smiles

The best family photos are candid. They capture the quirky personality of your family members, as well as their natural interactions. To give your photos an authentic flair, let your family members interact with one another while you snap photos. Remind them to look at the camera every now and then, but avoid positioning them too much or forcing any smiles.

Declutter the Staging Area

Wherever you choose to take your family photos, make sure to declutter the area first. Remove items that may distract from the people in your photographs, and make sure to adjust the lighting for optimal photo taking. Once the area is ready, you can bring in the family, and start snapping photos right away!

Take a Lot of Pictures

Have you ever taken a selfie? If so, chances are you retook that selfie several times before you had a photo you liked enough to share on social media, and send to friends. The trick to taking great family photos is to take a lot of them! You’ll likely take many photographs that aren’t too great, but the more you take, the more you increase your chances of taking several exceptional family photos you’ll want to share. One of the best tips for family photographs is to take a lot of them! With today’s modern digital frames, there is no such thing as having too many photographs, either. Simply insert your USB or SD card into the frame, or add the photos to your WiFi Cloud Frame playlist. The frame will display all of your favorite photographs, quick and easy.

Use a Camera Remote

Want to be in the pictures too? Set your camera on a tripod, and use a remote to take each photo. Adjust the height and scope of the camera beforehand, and take a few test shots to make sure everyone fits comfortably into the frame. When taking the photos, remember to hide the remote in your pocket, or keep your hand behind another family member so it doesn’t show.

Family photos can bring your family closer together, while providing a treasured visual for far-away relatives that don’t get to see your family’s smiling faces every day. By using Nixplay WiFi cloud frames, you can display family photos that are sent directly from your smartphone or social media platform, no matter where you are in the world. Sharing your family’s joy and love has never been so easy.

Have you ever tried pet photography and wound up with a candid view of their backside?

Getting your pet to cooperate for a photoshoot can be tricky business, but these 6 pet photo ideas will help you get that perfect shot. After all, the family photo isn’t complete without them!

1. Know your pet’s personality

Where does your pet feel most comfortable?

Go to them where they’re comfortable and likely to stay put for a while and find a way to make that context interesting.

Maybe your cat loves napping near the window midday. Try catching a photo of them in the sunlight during the afternoon. If you want a playful shot of your dog, where does your dog like to play? The park? Your backyard? The basement?

Trying to get an action shot of your lazy cat or mellow photo of your hyperactive dog might result in you banging your head against a wall. Plan your shoot and fit it to your pet’s personality.

2. Get in close

One mistake many amateur photographers will make is to keep the context similar to how they might shoot a family member, forgetting that this is an entirely different situation. Your pet is probably smaller than a person and that means they need to be photographed differently.

Get closer. Don’t let the scenery swallow up your pet.

This will also help you figure out the best angles on your pet. It can be tricky. Many beginners struggle knowing where to focus. Pet photographer Josh Norem suggests you focus on the eyes. If they eyes are out of focus, the shot will never look right.

Not only will getting in close help to get the proportions right, you won’t see the emotion and special looks your pet gives if you’re too far away. The emotion on their face can be more difficult to read further out. Get in there!

3. Try a wide-angle lens

Get in close to capture the details and scale of your pet, but try a wide-angle lens. This will allow you to both get in close and create a little more context.

A wide-angle lens may also offer you some opportunities to get creative as you play with it, creating some fun distortion around the edges. Get a close-up of your pet’s face and get a little more of them in with this technique.

4. Get on your pet’s level

Much like the suggestion in step two, taking your pet’s proportions into account is going to help you capture them better.

When you take a picture of a friend you generally get the lens at face level. Do your pet the same favor. Get down on your knees and take a photo at their level. Lay on your stomach if you have to.

It’ll change their proportions and give you a lot more personality in the photo than if you stand above them and shoot down. Shooting from where you stand will make it look like you’re just pointing and clicking and not getting that expressive portrait you’re looking for.

While you’re down there and since you’re already getting in close, why not try experimenting with some different framing. Catch just a piece of your pet’s face. Take a close-up of a paw. Play around and have fun.

5. Mind your lighting

Lighting is always important in photography. You have to have the right lighting to get the right shot. It’s as important as anything else you can think of in photography.

It can be tricky to organize these things with pets. You need the light, but if you use a flash you might scare your pet. Try using natural light from a window or taking the shoot outside. Natural light looks great and most pets love being in the sun.

6. Get creative!

As we said when we talked about family portraits, be creative, be expressive and don’t take yourself too seriously.

Now that you’ve captured that perfect shot, you have to display it right.

Get yourself a Nixplay WiFi Cloud Frame and you can bring in photos straight from your social media or Bluetooth-enabled smartphone. Even better, with all the great shots you got, you won’t have to choose just one with the frame’s playlist feature.

It’s one of the only frames that’s going to come with support to make sure everything goes right when you’re preparing that photographic tribute to your furry friend.

Photo printing has easily and cheaply transformed the world of photography forever. The ability to print photos easily and cheaply transformed the world of photography forever. When digital photography was invented, the world was transformed once again. Now, while many old-school believers stand by print photos as the ultimate medium, there are those who believe digital photos deserve this title. So, how can we know which one reigns supreme? Is a middle ground even possible?

Print Photos

Print photos have long provided the ultimate keepsake, a photo you can display for years in a beautiful frame. But, it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows! Non-digital cameras limit the number of photos you can take, and since there’s no digital preview, photo-taking is more difficult for amateur photographers. Digital photography has certainly eased these flaws, providing both photo previews, and a nearly endless amount of space for your photos, thanks to numerous gigabytes of digital storage. However, old-schoolers will defend the superior quality and depth of film-based photography, which does make it an ideal option for the quality-focused.

So, print photos maintain their stronghold in the photography community, especially for professional photographers, due to their high quality, and the tangible memories they create.

Digital Photos

Digital photography allows professional and amateur photographers alike to take an endless number of pictures. This is another advantage for print photography detractors. But, beyond the ability to preview a large number of images in order to get those perfect few, digital photography also allows photographers to display photos on digital photo frames and social media profiles. You can also send these photos to friends and family via text message or email. But does this stream of digitally-shared and stored photos reduce the value of a printed image?

The Best of Both Worlds

For those torn between old-school print photography, and the modern conveniences of digital photography, there is a middle ground. Digital photo frames offer both amateur and professional photographers ‘the best of both worlds.’ Here are just a few of their universal benefits:

• They give you the opportunity to visually display your memories in a beautiful frame that can be placed in your family’s most treasured spaces.
• They offer a way to display a large number of images, without cluttering your home with multiple frames. You can even sort you photos into digital photo albums.
• They save you the time and money of printing each photo you would like displayed.
• They offer you an enriched viewing experience, especially when combined with other multimedia, like music or videos.
• They can inspire creativity that an old-school frame simply can’t. You can make digital albums for special events, vacations, and more.
• They are easier to update than print photos. Rather than visiting a print shop or buying new frames, these photos can be updated digitally.

Digital photo frames encompass the best traits of both print and digital photos, and the Nixplay frames offer the highest-quality construction for your digital memories. Make sure to check out our WiFi Cloud Frames (including the Nixplay Original , the Nixplay Seed, and the Nixplay Edge), and decide which product displays your family’s special memories in the best way possible.

If you’re a parent looking to gift that special teacher in your child’s life something a little more substantial than an apple, consider a digital photo frame. These small techno devices pack a big wallop, both in terms of use and emotional impact.

There are a number of great ways that teachers can use digital frames in their classrooms. Check out our suggestions below, and tell us about yours!

1.   Personal Inspiration

Being a teacher is hard. It has got to be one of the most stressful jobs in the world (and also one of the most rewarding). Teachers may seem like bastions of patience, but they have their tear-their-hair-out moments just like you. When you give your teacher a digital frame, you may want to suggest they use it as personal inspiration, by adding photos of the moments that make it all worthwhile. They can then refer to the frame on their desk whenever they need a little motivation.

2.   Educational Aid

Digital frames can be excellent audio/visual tool for teachers. By adding images that will support their lesson, from geography to mathematics, it will give them a great audio/visual tool to make their lessons more modern and more engaging (without the cost of incorporating a more expensive iPad…which is out-of-budget for many teachers).  

3.   Virtual Aquarium or Pet

Many preschool and grade school teachers would love to have a pet in their classroom, but allergies, policies, budgets or caretaker schedules may make this impossible. Digital frames however let you get virtual pets, like an aquarium, at no cost—or fuss!

4.   Flashcards

Most of us probably used flashcards when we were in school to learn basic concepts, like letters, spelling and math. While this low-tech method is still extremely effective, it doesn’t garner a lot of attention from our high-tech-generation kids. Digital frames, however, can be used to create flashcard-like playlists that will cycle through questions and answers, in a techy way that engages kids.

5.   Trivia/Facts

Similarly, you can also create an age-appropriate game of trivia. Of course, a teacher could run wild with this idea, either incorporating it into their curriculum, or simply use it as a quick game to reward good behavior while still teaching valuable information.

6.   Classroom Memories

What better way to remind the kids of all the cherished times they’ve had together in the classroom than with a playlist of classroom and field trip photos? They’ll love seeing it, too, and photos can also be a great way to recall field trips and the things they’ve learned there.

7.   Clock

When the frame isn’t being used as flashcards, trivia or another audio/visual tool, teachers can use it as a digital clock. While this might not be the funkiest use of the frame, clocks are regularly needed in classrooms for timed exercises.

Give the gift of technology

Digital frames make excellent gifts for teachers. With so many possibilities, they truly are the gift that keeps on giving. To start the giving chain, visit our digital frames store. Check out our standard digital frames, and our Wifi-enabled Cloud frames (an excellent gift for super-techy teachers that love technology and social media!).