TOP 10 TECHNIQUES FOR BETTER PICTURES

Beautiful photographs involves nothing more than a bit of thought. While it helps to have decent equipment, all you really need to do is to take a moment and think clearly about what you are attempting to capture or create.

The following tips are intended to help novice and non-creative picture-takers to immediately improve their photography.

Tip #1: Move in closer

Each time you spot a subject, snap a shot and then move in closer to achieve a better shot. You help your viewer understand and appreciate your photo if your subject almost fills up the frame. Also, details are often more interesting compared to an overall view.

Tip #2: Be quick

If you think your subject may move, capture the picture right away. Practice getting quicker and quicker to the draw. Don’t worry about taking too many pictures and do not wait until you’re certain that all knobs are in their correct settings.

Tip #3: Compose your picture with care

If you think your subject may move, capture the picture right away. Practice getting quicker and quicker to the draw. Don’t worry about taking too many pictures and do not wait until you’re certain that all knobs are in their correct settings.

Always make sure that you make every effort to keep your photographs balanced and beautiful. On one level or another, everyone responds better to a picture that has all the elements in balance. Remember the following guidelines:

• Keep the horizon level
• Crop out the elements that you are not interested in
•  Place your subject where you think it naturally belongs rather than just accepting it wherever it happens to land in the photo
• Play with perspectives
• Work with the rule of thirds

Tip #4: Be selective

It is imperative to determine what you are really interested in and center your efforts on getting the best photo of your subject. Also remember to keep anything distracting out of the picture. How? The best and easiest way to do this is to watch your borders – the edges of the view you see through the camera’s viewfinder. The next thing to do is to “recompose” if anything distracting hangs into your picture.

This can be very difficult at times, but you have many options. You can:

• Focus in on a close-up that tells the whole story
• Move around until you achieve a neat pattern that leads to the subject
• Take a panning shot

Tip #5: Focus on your subject

To learn how depth-of-fields affects your photos, you can practice shooting with different apertures and monitor the results afterwards.

As you go along, you will learn that a smaller depth-of-field (and smaller f-stop) focuses more on your subject, which is great if you want your subject to stand out against a blurry background.

On the other hand, you will find that a greater depth-of-field (bigger f-stop number) will make everything appear in focus. This is usually best for shooting landscapes.

You will also want to be familiar with the way your camera focuses. If you’re using a point and shoot camera, you will likely indicate which part of the picture to focus on by following these steps:

• Aim so your subject is in the center of the viewfinder
• Press the shutter button down half-way and hold it
• Move your camera until you have the composition you like best
• Press the button down the rest of the way to take the picture

Tip #6: Experiment with shutter speed

Did you know that you have the power to slow time down or catch a split second? Yes, you do! This is indeed one of the most basic yet overlooked aspects in photography. All you have to do is play with the shutter speed!
Use a slow shutter speed and a tripod to make a pretty picture of any creek or stream. On the other hand, you can use a fast shutter speed to capture an object in motion.

Tip #7: Look at the light

Be conscious of what kind of light you are working with. Which way are the shadows falling? How is the light affecting your subject? Is the subject squinting? Is the light blazing directly and brightly upon your whole subject?

Photography #8: Watch the weather

Do you want to have clear blue skies in your picture? If the weather is a bit overcast, you might want to keep the sky out of the picture as much as possible. This is usually what photographers do to avoid muted tones in their subject and washed-out skies in the background. You might also want to consider taking black and white pictures of an overcast day.

When the day is beautiful, well, you’re lucky so go ahead and make the most of it.

Tip #9: Keep your camera settings simple

While you wish to have all the “bells and whistles” available just in case, you will probably get the best results if you do not try to use them all the time and instead learn a simple set up that works best for you in most situations.

Instead of relying on a fully-automatic program, why not pick a simple and semi-automatic program such as aperture-priority and master shooting in the mode. This way, you’ll be able to control certain basics without letting the other basics control you.

Tip #10: Be bold

In order to capture the best photos, you should not allow yourself to be paralyzed by fears of using the wrong settings or a non-politically-correct social policy. If you’re afraid of upsetting someone by taking the picture, just go up and ask for permission. Ask them to sign a release form and offer a print in return.

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