Everyone enjoys taking photos. Unlike most of us, good photographers have learned all the tricks of the trade, and that knowledge and skill shows in their work. If you want to take the same professionalism of shot, here are a few little techniques that you may not already know.
Take your pictures quickly. If you delay your shot, you might miss the perfect moment or lose your subject entirely. The faster you can snap a photo, the better.
To improve the quality of your picture, decrease the distance between your camera and your subject. This will help you frame your subject, and block out disruptive backgrounds. In addition, you are able to focus better on your subject’s facial expressions, which are very important aspects for portrait photographers. When your subject matter is at a distance, you lose important details.
You should strive to take new and original photographs. Personal style should be in a good photograph to express your point of view. Don’t do the things that have been done several times before. Look for different angles to emphasize different aspects of your subject.
Shutter Speed
You will learn so much if you watch other photographers. Seeing their work can remind you of all the various ways to take photos of many moments.
Try using a variety of shutter speeds to determine the best methods for different settings and circumstances. Depending how fast or slow you set your shutter speed, you can create a variety of effects ranging from crisply focused actions shots to softly blurred images. Using a faster shutter speed will let you catch objects while they are in motion, while a slow shutter speed is great for capturing serene natural settings.
Always highlight your very best images for showcases and displays. Do not display all of your pictures or too many on one topic. Many people tire quickly of viewing picture after picture of a single subject. Keep things unique by trying out different types of shots.
Properly framing your subject can improve your photograph. Eliminate objects that take away from your subject matter by zooming in on the main focal point. This will help keep clutter out of your pictures, and eliminate any unwanted focal points.
Shoot photos of a wide range of individuals. However, it is important to always ask your subject’s permission before snapping shots. When reviewing your travel pictures, these people will give you a lasting emotional connection to your travels, even if the faces do not seem very unusual at the time. Candid shots of people wearing normal, casual clothes work really well.
Even though the foreground of a photograph is what people see, a lot of people that take photographs focus on only the background in a picture of a landscape. Put more time into composing your shot’s foreground to create more striking and deep photographs.
One of the best ways to take excellent shots is to take a lot of them; purchase a memory card which can store a great deal of pictures. A larger memory card will allow you to take as many pictures as you need without worrying about running out of space on the card. Yet another advantage to lots of memory is that it allows you to shoot in a format called RAW, giving you greater flexibility when you edit it later.
Blur the background of shots with people in them just a little bit. If your background is focused it might take some focus off of your subject. An easy way to do this is to make your background is further from your subject.
When you travel, take unusual photos of things such as souvenirs. To help you remember where you purchased items, stand in front of the store with the object, and take a picture. Photographs showing you with your souvenir, or the place you purchased it, can place the objects in the context of your travels and remind you of the moment you made the purchase.
Memory Card
Make sure to jot a few notes down with your pictures. When sorting through mass amounts of pictures, remembering the exact context or setting of each photograph can be difficult. Eventually, you may want to create a scrapbook and include some of the descriptive information along with the pictures.
It is important to have a sufficient memory to hold lots of pictures; the best way to get good photos is to take a large number of them. With a large memory card, you do not have to worry about not having enough room on your card to hold additional pictures. Another advantage of a large memory card is you can shoot in RAW format, which allows the most flexibility during post-production.
Anybody can become a decent photographer, it just takes practice. Practice your shooting to gain experience, and hone your skills. One of the great benefits of digital photography is that it is very easy to sort through images you want to keep, and discard the rest. You will become better as you take pictures of everything you see and judge them later to see where you could have taken a better picture.
Get close to the subject of your photograph. Nothing is as bad as taking a photograph of something that is not close enough to see well. Make it easier for yourself and for your viewers to see your subject clearly and vividly.
Be more creative using limitation. Focus on specific concepts to narrow the scope of your photography. Shoot around 100 different pictures in the same room, or from one certain point. By placing limitations on yourself and your photography, you can sharpen your creative skills and work outside of the box.
When you finally find that perfect moment to snap a shot, make sure not to move at all when you press the shutter. Even hold your breath, if you have to. Any little movement can ruin your shot. Some people agree that it’s best to stop breathing right before pressing the button, as a way of personally steadying yourself.
Make sure you take note of natural lighting. You will want to pick the best time of the day to take your outdoor photos, evening or morning is the best. When sun is high in the sky it will give you shadows that you do not want, or if you are taking photos of people they may squint. The optimum way to make use of the sunlight is by setting up a shot in which the subject in the photo is getting hit side on.
Learn composition and that less is much more with photographs. You should have no reason to have a bunch of clutter or elements in your shot. Beauty often comes from simple constructions.
When taking a picture of a group of people, let them know what they should wear before the shot. It is not necessary to match colors, but you should pick shades that look good together. If it’s a natural environment, let them know to wear warm colors or a more neutral shade of clothing. If your subjects prefer bright colors, suggest that they also wear black to balance out your photo.
Look around for good subjects for your photos, any time you are on the road. If you do not know where to start, take a look at some postcards. Study the postcards, taking note of the subject matter and the way the photographer shot the pictures to take advantage of some specific qualities of the subject, then use these techniques when taking your own photos.
Use different angles for your shots to personalize them. There’s nothing unique about snapping a picture from a straight-on angle. Consider getting high up to look down at your subjects, or get down and look up to take a picture of them. You could also consider taking sideways or diagonal shots to make them more interesting.
Look for patterns in the background when taking photographs. Patterns, especially repeating patterns, make for something interesting to look at in a photograph. They also make visually interesting backgrounds for other subjects.
You should know how your camera lens focuses, and where the sharpest zone of focus lies within your camera’s frame. Most of the time, you will be able to see the greatest amount of sharpness right in the center of your lens and image. It then begins to distort as it approaches the outside edges of the frame of your camera.
You should take time to properly frame every shot. Not a physical frame, but one that is totally natural. Look really closely at the subject of your shot. Are there any elements around it that can be used to create a frame to enhance it? Practicing this technique will help you to better your composition skills.
One of the best ways to improve your shots is to purchase a tripod. When taking active photos or low-speed photos, little bumps and jiggles will show in your pictures. An inexpensive tripod can really help you to take a steady shot, that will come out crisp and clear. A quality tripod will make your pictures much more professional looking.
Most cameras only allow you to focus on either highlights or shadows in one picture. If you so choose, you can take two different pictures with different effects, and blend them together using programs such as Photoshop.
Use different speeds with your shutters for various effects. A fast speed allows you to capture a precise picture of a moving object, but try experiencing with slower speeds, perhaps 1/30. See that cyclist speeding by? The result will be that the cyclist is sharp and clear, while the background is horizontally streaked, creating a speeding effect.
Don’t miss out on capturing a great image because you’re fumbling with your camera’s settings. Also, you don’t want a camera with a preset, as this lets your camera choose it’s own settings. Explore your options and use a setting that allows you to change the elements you want to be in control of.
Spend a little extra time posing your subject. If you find that photos taken during family gatherings never seem to turn out well, the problem could be due to the candid nature of the shot, and the resulting element of surprise. This enables you to improve the look and feel of each shot.
Explore silhouettes during your next photography session. Most use the sunset for a silhouette, but there are other ways to accomplish this too. Any time the background is brighter than your subject, you will create a silhouette effect. Having a beautiful silhouette can be as simple as positioning the flash away from the camera, behind the subject you are photographing. A bright light outside a window can also produce similar results. Realize, however, that outlining someone’s body or face and make deformities more apparent.
Get closer. Zooming, moving and cropping the image to best fit the frame you are using is recommended. You want to be sure that the subject area is filled with only the parts of the photo you see fit. If you have too much going on in the background, even if it is scenic, can make you lose focus of the subject. When the subject in your photo is close, you will also be able to notice more details that can enhance the picture.
Nothing else is left to do except apply these ideas as chance upon your next photo opportunity. Before you realize it, your picture’s quality will increase!
Hold your camera correctly if you want to take great pictures. When you are not holding your camera properly, you may not be getting the stability you need for the perfect photo. Make sure that your arms remain next to your body while the cameras lens is supported by your off hand.