Welcome to the world of photography! It’s a great big world, one that includes all the techniques and skills that could ever contribute to taking a great photo. You can use photography as a personal expression, which can be difficult. Continue on for some helpful suggestions to get you started.
Be selective about the elements that you include in your photo. Go ahead and remove anything from the picture that doesn’t belong there or makes the frame seem unbalanced. Use panning shots that keep your subject in focus but blur the background if you can’t remove all unwanted distractions from your shot.
Set up some basic programs for your DSLR camera. By setting some of the basic values ahead of time, you don’t have to mess with them in the event that you want to get a shot in, in a short amount of time. Instead, you just press the button and start shooting.
Make sure you taking lighting into account when you’re taking your photos. Will there be shadows cast upon your subject? Is your subject squinting into the sun or other bright light? Try moving around to find the best angle in the lighting to get the best photo. Try taking your photos at different vantage points so that you can see what works best.
When taking a picture, try to take one at a medium distance and then take one closer. You may decide later on that a picture would have looked better had you taken it a little closer. Also, try to make sure your subject is toward the center of the picture.
Use a rather low ISO. A good ISO is around 200. Using this range of ISO will make your pictures look dark in certain situations, but you can easily change the contrast and light on a computer. If you use a higher ISO, you will get a lot of noise on your picture, which makes editing harder.
When photographing portraits, isolate your subject. Use a medium telephoto lens or the medium telephoto setting on your zoom. That, combined with a large aperture (try f/4 or larger), blurs the foreground and background. Focus on the eyes. Use diffused lighting for a flattering look. If outdoors, wait for an overcast sky or shoot with the subject in the shadows and the sun at your back.
A good photography tip is to always be early when you’re planning on shooting a sunset or a sunrise. This will give you ample time to compose the perfect shot. You don’t want to get there and be forced to compose a lousy shot because you’re short on time.
Take shots from a wide variety of angles to catch different perspectives. Try taking pictures of the subject from below, above, to the left and to the right.
If you are serious about photography, use a tripod. Tripods hold your camera still, which means that you will get an exceptionally clear shot when you use them. They come in particularly handy when you are taking a picture of a landscape, a sporting event or anything happening at night.
Figure out different ways to adjust your shutter speeds. Most people use the fastest speed available to gain stills from action shots, but other speeds, like 1/30, can have interesting effects too. For example, suppose you are preparing to photograph a bicyclist in motion. With a slower shutter speed, you will get a sharp image of the subject with a background that expresses speed due to a horizontal streaking effect.
As you continue to explore photography, you will find more and more techniques to improve your picture taking skills. Some techniques might simply be unsuitable for some photographers, but fortunately, everyone can find something helpful in the panoply of photographic possibilities. With luck, the ideas in this article are a good starting vantage point for your shots.
