Take better Photographs tips.

Often happens that when we copy the brand new photographs from the camera on our PC and look at them we, see a lot of “very good photographs”, but when we show it to others we find that are quite not that good. That is because our photograph has a lot of visual and compositional mistakes and doesn’t tell a story ( being a wide subject I will talk more about the composition in another post ). This facts can make your photo very unappealing. We are often fooled by the fact that we know the whole story of a photo because we were there, but our viewer wasn’t there so he must understand from the little point of vie caught in your photo (We have a subjective look on our photos and might block us from seeing the mistakes). But it’s always a good idea to have a “fresh eye” so don’t be afraid to ask for opinions.

So here are some advices to follow that will improve your skills in taking better photographs:

1. Always have a subject (or more). We often see photograph where are a bunch of cluttered things and we find hard to understand what’s the exact subject of the photo. So be careful to always have a subject so that our photograph to be able to express something.
2. Use depth of field. A great way of isolating a particular subject ( portrait, butterfly, dog, cat, horse, etc) it’s by using a small depth of field to throw your background out of focus. You can do this by moving in close, using a large aperture and zooming in close.
3. Fill the frame with your subject. This will make it clearer, more defined and easier to appreciate. If your subject is both a monument as well as a person, make sure that the height of the person is at least one third that of the viewfinder frame. This makes sure that people wont have to squint to figure out who it is that’s in the picture.
4. Try different viewpoints. Try to shoot down from up or up from down from the left from the right. By doing this you might get a better photo.
5. Frame your subject. Use doors, windows, branches, etc. so that you create a frame where to put you subject. This technique gives depth to you photograph.
6. Use rules of composition. For example the rule of thirds, golden section, usage of perspective and lines, forms, contrasts and texture among others, can greatly improve your photo and make it interesting rather than boring.
   
7. Examine you photograph before you shoot. Especially try to look at you background. Stay away from cluttered backgrounds, watch out of trees, wires, buildings, lights, etc (that might “pop out” from you subject head).
   
8. Take photos at sunrises and sunsets. The light before sunrise or sunsets is very beautiful and warm. Use that to bathe you subject in this wonderful light.
9. Don’t cut you subject. Avoid cropping you subject from elbows or knees. I often see this mistake and makes the image look weird.
10. Read you camera’s user manual. Learn what you camera can do. You always find new things that you camera can do. Learn you camera limitations and try to overcome them.
    
11. Shoot lots of pictures. Almost everyone has digital cameras, so it will cost you nothing to take hundreds of pictures. Use different settings, try different angles, zooms, positions, experiment, and don’t stop shooting. Try to make each photograph as distinct from the others as possible. This will keep you in touch with your camera and hone your compositional skills to a great degree. Take pictures every week. After all, you do need to practice if you want to keep taking good pictures.
12. Always try to do better. Even if you shoot good photos, always try different things so that you improve. Even if you have the perfect solution for a photo situation challenge yourself and try a different approach. The pro photographers are often doing this so that they will become even better.

I hope you enjoyed this, and remember in photography there are no limits, and there are just some guidelines, but aren’t limitations. You might need to brake some rules, just do it without thinking of it as long as the results will be mind blowing.

Tags: Composition, Photography, Tips & Tricks