10 Tips For Photographers

by Trevor Mauk

1. Back to Basic Rules: When taking pictures, following a simple rule can make your pictures much more interesting and professional. Do not place your subject of the picture (ex. a face, a flower) in the dead center of the photograph. Instead, move the subject closer to the edge or the corners of the picture. When taking portraits, you can follow this rule by putting your subject’s eyes in the top three quarter mark of the photo. With many cameras, a grid can be turned on in the viewfinder to help compose your photographs.

2. ISO Settings: You can increase the quality of your pictures by manually setting the ISO sensitivity instead of letting the camera pick the ISO sensitivity automatically. The ISO sensitivity controls how sensitive to light your camera’s sensor is. With a high ISO, you can shoot in lower light without your photos becoming blurry. However, a high ISO setting will make your pictures grainier than if they were shot at a lower setting. Generally, the automatic settings will set the ISO higher than it really needs to be for most situations to prevent camera shake blurring. Try to bring the ISO sensitivity settings down as low as you can until your pictures begin to appear blurry for your current lighting conditions. This will increase the quality of your pictures and make them less grainy.

3. Experiment with Interesting Angles: Try to shoot your pictures from interesting angles, as opposed to shooting your subject dead on. This will help to make your pictures much more interesting, and much less typical. Shooting at interesting angles against walls and flat surfaces is a good way to practice taking pictures at interesting angles. Also, experiment with different perspectives with your photography, such as shooting from ground level or much higher than would be accepted as normal.

4. Set the Lowest Aperture Setting: If your camera has the ability to manually adjust its aperture settings, you can adjust this setting to create more professional portraits. The aperture settings control how much light the lens will let into the camera when you take a picture. The lower the F/stop value, the more light the lens will let in. For example, F/2.0 lets in more light than F/10. By putting your camera on its aperture priority setting, (usually marked Av for Canon, A for Nikon) you can set the aperture value to the lowest setting, and the camera will automatically adjust the shutter speed to correctly expose the photograph. When shooting portraits with the lowest aperture setting, a more shallow depth of fled will be created than if it was taken at a higher F/stop. This means that only the subject of your photo will be in focus, and the rest will be more out of focus. This creates the very professional look of having blurry backgrounds in portraits. It brings attention to the subject and away from distracting elements in the background. (Note: different lenses have a different range of aperture settings. Choosing a lens with an ability to go to low F/stops will create more intense, blurry backgrounds.)

5. Zoom In: This tip is very beneficial to owners of point and shoot cameras, but does not exclude SLR owners. When taking portraits, experiment with stepping back and using the cameras optical zoom to zoom in on your subject. This will create a more shallow depth of field and create smooth, out of focus backgrounds.

6. Take Candids: When taking pictures of individual people or of groups, it’s very normal to count down 3…2….1… and snap your picture. However, you will find that taking candid pictures is a way to capture the true moments. It will also give your pictures much more feel and emotion.

7. Take Lots of Pictures: This tip is simple. In the new world of digital photography, the worry about film costs is a thing of the past. The chance of getting a good picture is increased greatly by simply taking many more of them. And you can always delete what you don’t like later.

8. Shooting at Morning/Sunset: It is crucial to have good lighting available to you in order to take good photographs. The best time to take pictures is during the morning or during the late afternoon. During this time, many harsh shadows that are unavoidable under the sun at noon-time are gone. During the middle of the day, harsh lighting from directly overhead creates unflattering shadows, especially on faces. During the morning and late afternoon, you can position your model to have the light cover all of their face or part of their face. Also, you can have your model stand in front of the sun to create dramatic backlighting. Shooting at these times of day is not only better for taking pictures of people, but also works well for landscapes, animals, and inanimate objects as well.

9. Pay Attention to Backgrounds: When taking pictures of people or inanimate objects, it is very important to pay attention to the background of your photographs. It often helps to have backgrounds that lead your eye through the picture. Although this is not easily put into words, the photograph on the left may help to visualize this tip. Notice how the swings in the background continue and repeat from left to right. This helps create a background that leads your eye throughout the photograph, while also creating a more interesting picture.

10.) Use Flash During The Day: Unfortunately, nice natural light is not always available when you need to take pictures. A good way to compensate for harsh lighting in the early afternoon is to take pictures with your flash on. This will help fill in harsh shadows that the harsh light creates. Using your flash is also of course beneficial at dusk or during the evening when there is not enough light available.