10 Tips for Better Photography

Taking good photos isn’t as hard as it may seem. You not always need the most expensive camera or years of experience. We invite you to run through the below 10 tips that will help you to improve your photography.

Tip 1 – Use all the available frame space

Don’t be afraid to use all the frame space for your subject. If you want to take a picture of something, it’s fine for it to take up the whole frame with no or very little background shown. Don’t be afraid to break the rule of thirds even if everyone else is following it.

Tip 2 – Study shapes

This is a vital aspect to photography. Understanding shapes in your photos. Don’t look at the object; look at its shape and its form, so you can find the best angle to photograph it from. Shapes are all around us and we highly recommend studying them and their perspective closely.

Tip 3 – Motion in your photos

Try not to have motion in your photo if you are photographing a still object. If there is some movement while you are trying to photograph a non-moving object, your photo won’t look really well. Except if you are shooting background motion intentionally. Also don’t put a horizon line in the centre of your frame.

Tip 4 – Learn to use contrast between colors.

Some of the best photos have shades of white, gray and black. You can have great shots with one color on your subject, but the contrast between colors in a shot is what makes you a great photographer.

Tip 5 – Get closer to your subject

One of the biggest mistakes that many photographers make – not getting close enough the subject when using a prime or a short zoom lenses. Unless you are using a telephoto lens and a tripod it’s well worth making a few more steps towards your subject.

Tip 6 – Beware of the shutter lag

Shooting action photos with entry level digital cameras can be tricky due to the shutter lag. It basically means that when you press the button to take a photo, on some cameras it may take up to a second for the shutter to act. By that time your subject could have changed the position.  If you are using an entry level camera, you have to compensate shutter lag by predicting how your subject is going to move and taking the photo just before it takes the action you want. It’s not an easiest task, especially in sports photography. However, if you don’t take this into account you may end up having worthless images of football player’s leg leaving the image frame. Or in worst scenarios – just empty images.

Tip 7 – Follow the subject

If you are taking an action shot and your shutter speed is slow, follow your subject with the lens as it moves. Follow from start to finish taking shots continuously and one of those may be a winner. You have better chances of getting a good shot if you take more than one photo. If you are a digital camera user you don’t have to worry about wasting the film.

Tip 8 – Continuous shooting mode

To follow the subject as we suggested above you need a camera that has continuous shooting mode and doesn’t need to stop and process after every shot. In fact most modern cameras, even entry level ones can do that. The only thing to watch out for is your shutter speed, so your images don’t come out blurry. When moving the camera while shooting, you need to use faster shutter speeds than you would use for still photography.

Tip 9 – How to take night shots

Night shots can be spectacular, almost magical if they are done right! If not – they can look horrible. You can get just black images of nothing, or some blurry lights on black background. Without adequate amount of light hitting your sensor, even top notch cameras can produce worthless results. Key for night photography is a tripod combined with long shutter speeds and higher ISO numbers.

Tip 10 – Study your camera manual

It may be surprising but camera manual actually has a lot of useful information and many people including professional photographers never read it. Nowadays even entry level cameras have settings and abilities that are not obvious and not so easy to find in the camera menu. Once you get your new camera – run through the manual. If you are not willing to read the whole thing, just scan the index page. You can read details about some particular functions later on, when you actually will plan to use them. This way you will know what your camera is capable of, which may help you a lot later.

Happy shooting!