Great Photography Tips

March 17th, 2009 | Photography

I have been studying photography for many years now, and since the beginning my friends have always asked how I take such good pictures. Even though there are many different types of photography, most of the key tips I give end up being the same for all.

Professionals Use Single Lens Reflex Cameras

The number one tip that I give is to use a Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera. I do not understand why many self proclaimed amateur photographers have not started to learn how to use an SLR (some still use snapshot cameras).

I know that this is the age of technology, and that the advances in digital cameras and memory are getting better and better every day, but there is just not enough versatility with a snapshot camera. They are okay for the general every day pictures, but they just do not offer the professional results and versatility obtained with an SLR camera.

With all of that in mind, more functions come with the increase in versatility. So, when you do start using a single lens reflex (if you do not already), be sure to become familiar with the owners manual. Learn which function controls the aperture size, the speed of the shutter, the white balance, and the film (ISO) settings.

Note: In older SLR cameras (not digital) ISO is a function of the film and refers to the film’s speed. Only digital SLRs offer ISO function settings.

Use the Viewfinder Properly

Too many photographers shoot much wider then they really want and have to use software to crop the shot down to the scene they want. This just causes more work later, and there may be too many distractions to crop out.

Unlike a point and click camera, the viewfinder of an SLR uses a prism and mirrors that allow you to look directly through the lens. This is why you get what you see in the view finder with an SLR (no more cropping off the top of your uncle’s head like a point and click sometimes does). By taking everything in the viewfinder into account, you may notice distractions that you otherwise would not have.

Don’t you hate it when you think you have captured a really good scene just to find out later that there was something distracting in the background?

Putting the Shot Together

One of the most often used techniques of composition is the Rule of Thirds. Divide the viewfinder into nine equally sized boxes like on a tic tac toe game board. Where the dividing lines meet is where subjects of interest should be located. Relativey straight lines (vertical and horizontal), such as the edge of a building or a natural horizon, is best located on a vertical or horizontal grid line.

This technique causes stress in the scene, and this stress causes interest.

The more care taken in preparing a shot, the less likely photography software corrections will need to be done later.

Note: Before each major session change, reset the white balance of your camera. Lighting conditions may change throughout the day (from session to session). Correcting white balance between sessions will cut down on necessary Photoshop corrections. The answer to how to take good pictures does not include using software to correct them later.

Portraits

The techniques we just discussed work with all of the general styles, but there are some techniques that are commonly used with particular styles. With portraits, the subject can easily be over powered by the rest of the scene so it is important for the subject to stand out.

The easiest, and I feel one of the most dramatic, ways of bringing out the subject in a portrait shot is to use a narrow depth of field. The depth of field is the depth of the area in front of the camera that appears in focus. This is controlled by the aperture setting. The lower the aperture setting is, the bigger the opening in the aperture and the more narrow the depth of field.

Note: This allows more light through the lens of your camera so the settings of the film (ISO) and shutter must be changed to compensate.

Taking a portrait of a subject in a narrow depth of field while keeping the foreground and background out of the depth of field makes the subject appear in focus while keeping the rest of the scenery a bit out of focus. This results in the subject really standing out and even seeming to pop out of the picture.

Landscapes

Landscape photography is another style that has specific necessary techniques. Unlike portraits, with landscape photography the entire scene is the subject; it is often desirable to keep the entire scene equally in focus and to shoot at a wider perspective to encompass as much of the scenery as possible.

In order to obtain this, an infinite depth of field is needed along with a lens that allows a perspective broader than the human eye. The Wide angle lens allows for both and is the most commonly used lens in photographing landscapes. These lenses allow a large perspective of a scene to be captured.

In order to keep an infinite depth of field, it is necessary to use a high aperture setting. This causes the opening in the aperture to be very small. The shutter must be left open longer to compensate for this. With that understood, it is absolutely necessary to use a tripod or other camera stabilizing apparatus with landscape photography so the camera will not move while the shutter is open.

I hope you have enjoyed this article and that it has been useful. If it has helped in any way, the next time someone asks how you take such good pictures, feel free to share this article with them.

By: Jonnie Blaylock

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Jonnie Blaylock is an amateur photographer thal loves to help beginning photographers learn how to take good pictures.