photography tips and techniques
DESCRIPTION
A beginners guide to photography tips and techniques that provides seven easy tips to start using easily.TRANSCRIPT
Beginner Pointers on Photography
Free Report from http://phototechniques.info
How to Teach Yourself Photography To teach yourself photography you need to plan a learning process
where you go from the basics to more advanced photo techniques.
You should start with camera mechanics and photo composition
basics and then move on to more advanced things like creative
exposure or conceptual photography.
The Basics
The first step for anybody that learned photography was learning the
basics. For photography, this basically deals with two areas:
1. Learning basic visual composition
2. Learning how to use all the settings on most SLR cameras
The first step of learning visual composition techniques is not difficult
but does take time. These techniques include things such as the rule
of thirds, leading lines, simplicity, etc. They are simple tips for
improving the way you take a photo.
Most people new to photography just see an interesting scene and
take the shot. They don’t take the time to carefully look at what image
is in the viewfinder of the camera. By taking more time and carefully
arranging the scene in your photo you end up with a nicer image.
The way to improve your compositions is to learn a few tips (like
leading lines) and go out and take hundreds of pictures with that
specific tip. You’ll notice that the first photos were very basic uses of
the technique.
Many times they are quite ugly as well. When you look at the more
recent photos you’ll notice that the photos are much more clean and
may even use the technique in unique, less “generic” ways. After
this, you use a new technique and maybe even fuse the previous
ones you learned together.
Learning Camera Functions
When you teach yourself photography it is very important to become
familiar with the buttons and controls of an SLR camera. If you have
a regular automatic camera I highly recommend getting an SLR.
Even if it an old school film SLR camera it will help you learn
photography much quicker.
The most important controls you need to know deal with exposure. They include the shutter speed,
aperture, and ISO. These all affect the way that light is let into your camera. Improper use of these
(or letting the camera automatically select numbers for these) often leads to under or over exposed
shots.
These controls are not difficult to learn. If you understand how to use them then you should have no
problem taking properly exposed images. Once you learn this, the next step is to begin getting
creative with your exposures. You can make a normal scene over exposed and add much more
interest. For example, if you’re taking a shot of trees in the forest you can slightly over-expose the
image to make the trees “pop” and look heavenly as the sky and surrounding background will be
much brighter and create a halo effect on the trees.
7 Tips on Photography If you’re new to photography and looking for some simple tips and tricks to get your photos looking
better, this article will give you 7 tips on photography!
These tips are all compositionally based and help you use your “eye” more when taking photos.
Tips on Photography #1 – Avoid the Center
The rule of thirds is what they call it in the photography books. Basically this advises people taking
photos to avoid the center when photographing subjects or objects. This is a great tip to start
following with your photos. Simply avoid placing people, animals, or anything of interested dead
center. Instead, move it to the left or right, or even to the top or bottom.
An example of this is when you take a picture of a person. The main point of interest is their eyes.
So, simply avoid placing their eyes dead center. Place them somewhere else!
Tips on Photography #2 – Use Lines to Lead the Viewers
Lines are everywhere. It’s just a matter of noticing them and using them to create dynamic and more
interesting images. This is actually the first of two more tips just with using lines!
The way to use lines to lead the viewers is simple. Simply find your subject and look for lines around.
Then move to a position where the lines point to your subject. This can be subtle or obvious. An
example of this is having your subject stand near a wall and positioning yourself so the lines of this
wall point to your subject. This prevents us from standing straight in front of the subject and taking a
picture, reducing the depth. By using these lines, the depth of your shots will become much more
expansive.
Tips on Photography #3 – Use the Horizon
Horizontal lines are very peaceful and relaxing. Just think of a sunset a flat field of grass in the
summer. The flat lines with very few vertical lines make the photo more tranquil. You can use this
technique when you want to make your photo more “relaxing”. Simply look around and see if your
photo has lots of vertical or horizontal lines. If it has too many vertical lines try moving back or
positioning yourself so the horizontal lines outweigh the vertical lines.
There are common examples of photos with lots of vertical lines but the horizontal line is stronger,
making the photo peaceful. Think of a shot of a forest with thousands of vertical trees. The horizon
that connects all the vertical lines dominates and makes the scene less “energetic”.
Tips on Photography #4 – Use Vertical Lines
The opposite can also be used with vertical lines. Instead of photographing a scene where the forest
has a large horizontal line, get up close to one tree and use the height of the tree as a large
dominant vertical line. Now the entire feel and energy of the picture has changed.
This is also effective for skyscraper shots. A shot of many buildings with a large horizon line makes
the scene look more mellow. Get close and shoot up at one particular building (augmenting the
vertical lines) and suddenly the photo has lots of energy.
Tips on Photography #5 – Use Empty Space
One very effective technique to use for photography is empty space. Many times people that don’t
know anything about photography try to fill the entire image with stuff. This often creates cluttered
and images that are not pretty.
Solution: Use space. Don’t be afraid of leaving empty space around your subject.
Tips on Photography #6 – Isolate
Very similar to the last tip, isolating your subject also can make photos quite interesting. Most people
that take photos just take snapshots of everything. They don’t take time to get up close or zoom into
a particular object/subject and isolate it from the surrounding environment. Try this: next time you’re
taking photos somewhere pick a few objects and isolate them. Then, be sure the background is not
cluttered. This can be done by using a shallow depth of field or simply positioning yourself so the
background has empty space. Often times getting lower works great for this as you make the
background the clear blue sky (plenty of empty space).
Tips on Photography #7 – Shoot During Sunset and Sunrise
One of the most useful tips that can get your photos looking great is shooting your photos only
during sunset or sunrise until you start getting better. During these times the light outside is crisp.
The atmosphere gets a nice atmospheric glow of colors in the sky that makes it pretty hard not to
take a decent landscape shot.
Try only taking photos in the afternoon and in the morning. Avoid shooting when the sun is directly
overhead. This produces harsh shadows that don’t work well for most average scenes. Of course,
overhead lighting is great for certain scenes and accentuates details…but that’s for another post!
For more tips on photography be sure to sign up for a free ecourse here!