Quick-fire Photography Tips

Quick-fire Photography Tips

1

Learn all the rules so you can break them later

Photography rules are essential because they provide a foundation for more advanced photography tips and tricks later on. Learn the rules first, so you have more creative control when breaking them later.

Learn as you go — don’t let it prevent you from picking up a camera.

2

Expose and focus first, then frame your shot

An improperly exposed or blurry picture is unusable, but one not precisely framed may still be saved. For this reason, you should always focus on and properly expose for the subject before adjusting the frame.

This is something that happens more often when you have extreme lights and darks in the same scene.

3

Focus on the eyes

We are always drawn towards the eyes in a photograph, since eyes are a natural focal point that we connect with.

When taking portrait photographs at any aperture, make sure you nail the focus on the eyes. As long as the eyes are in focus, both you and your subject are more likely to consider the picture to be properly shot.

4

Make lots of mistakes, then learn from them

The more mistakes you make, the faster you’ll learn and improve your photography skills. All professional photographers once started without an understanding of anything on a camera.

The real value is in turning mistakes into lessons that build your skills. So try a technique or style you haven’t done before and expect to make many mistakes along the way.

5

Perfect the exposure trifecta

Getting proper exposure in photography consists of balancing three things: shutter speed, aperture, and ISO settings. You can start off by shooting in automatic or priority mode, but to get full control and shoot with manual camera controls you’ll have to understand the relationship between these three things that each directly affect the exposure and quality of your image.

ISO - Pronounced “eye-so,” this is (strangely) an acronym for International Organization for Standardization. The ISO indicates how sensitive the sensor or film is to light. For darker scenarios, you’ll need to use higher or more sensitive ISO settings to capture light, such as 800 or 1600 ISO. Higher settings generally introduce more grain or noise into the image.

Aperture - This refers to the size of the opening in the lens diaphragm. Smaller numbers mean a larger opening and more shallow depth of field in your images. Larger numbers let through less light, but make more of your image look sharp.

Shutter speed - This is the amount of time your camera’s shutter is open and the amount of time your sensor or film is exposed to light. Faster speeds can “stop” motion, while slower speeds let in more light and can capture blur and motion.

6

Always be ready

Be as prepared as a boy scout and always be ready to snap a shot. Most digital SLRs have nearly instantaneous startup times, and it takes almost no extra battery power to leave your camera on.

Keep your camera on one of the semi-auto or full automatic modes for unexpected pictures before your subject flies, drives, or runs away. You can always switch back to your preferred mode when you have time to adjust for a stationary subject. Sometimes you only have a split second to capture a great shot.

7

Use a wider aperture for portraits to make your subject pop

Aim for an aperture size around f/2.8 to f/5.6 to make the background behind your subject more blurred out. This will help remove distracting backgrounds and make your subject stand out. You can experiment with even wider apertures, but take care to keep your subject’s eyes in focus.

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8

Prevent blurry pictures by
matching shutter speed
to the lens focal length

For example, if you’re using a 50mm lens you should use shutter speeds of 1/50 sec or faster to be able to capture handheld images and keep them sharp. Longer lenses are heavier and more difficult to keep steady — making the shutter speed faster helps avoid camera shake.

9

Straighten and crop when editing

You should try to straighten shots by looking through your camera’s viewfinder before capturing an image, but it’s not always easy to get this perfect on the first try.

The viewfinder or the preview on your LCD is quite small compared to full-screen editing so you may realize it needs adjusting once you see it on a bigger screen. Simply rotate your images in post production software and crop out the empty spaces.

10

Avoid camera shake

Camera shake can render a photo unusable. Increasing your ISO and opening up your aperture allows for quicker shutter speeds, reducing the chance of blurry images. However, this is not always an option if you’re trying to maintain other specific qualities of your image.

Start by doing what you can to reduce camera movement, which begins with learning how to properly hold a camera.

11

Keep both eyes open when looking through the rangefinder

This has a few advantages. When shooting portraits, your subjects will be able to ‘connect’ with you by seeing one of your eyes. Without this, many subjects can feel a little bit uneasy like you’re hiding behind the camera.

Secondly, keeping both eyes open lets you monitor what’s out of the frame so you can predict when your subject will enter the frame. This is important for capturing sports, animals, or any kind of action shots.

12

Learn to use exposure compensation

Sometimes you’ll take photographs that don’t properly expose your subject—they are way too bright, or way too dark. This can be a combination of a few things: which areas of the scene your camera measured for exposure, and how different in brightness the light and dark areas are in your scene.

You can quickly fix these images by using the in-camera exposure compensation to make your subject look just right.

13

Photograph what you love

Focusing on what you love will make photography more enjoyable for you. If you are passionate about nature, people, pets, or something else entirely, start learning by taking pictures of it.

This will keep you interested in photography and allow you to overcome learning obstacles without breaking a sweat.

14

Make use of reflections

There are lots of unique opportunities if you pay attention where most people don’t. One of the things to look out for are reflections.

You can find them after (or even during) rainy days, in puddles, in lakes and even in swimming pools. Water isn’t the only source, try mirrors, big glass windows, and chromed out fixtures.