Improve Your Photographs – Taking Good Photos is Actually Much Easier Than You Might Think.

Feature, How To — By cojack7

good photography

In an age where social-networking and photo-sharing communities allow and even expect users to publicly document their lives through hundreds (if not thousands!) of crude un-considered point-and-click photographs taken by any person who can afford the steadily declining cost of a compact digital camera, it can sometimes be easy to forget that there even is such a thing as good quality camera work. The internet’s communal meet-and-greet websites are saturated with bland imagery and useless repetitive shots. You don’t have to look far these days to find them. So what does it take to make your pictures stand out from the rest? The answer, thankfully, is actually quite simple.

The Simple Solution To Better Pictures.

Take some time to actually put a grain or two of thought into each click of your camera’s shutter. Since most of us are using digital cameras these days, we’ve gotten complacent about the quality of our images, relying on the fact that we can take ten times the amount of shots we actually want – returning later to sort through them all and select the better pictures. This is a bland, backdoor way of getting a good photograph and will only yield minimally satisfying results.

Now, keep in mind that when I say “high quality” I’m not talking about glossy, professional magazine pictures. I wouldn’t expect you to bring your 200 dollar digital camera to the Saturday night party and come away with award winning imagery. However, I do believe you can go to that same party and with that same camera come away with pictures that will undoubtedly impress your friends when you post them the next day all across the internet.

A Good Start.

I took a black and white 35mm photography class back when I was in college and would recommend this to anyone who has the time and accommodations. It was a simple class with fairly straight-forward assignments, but it taught me the ins and outs of utilizing my camera as we critiqued each other’s photographs and developed our own film. Except for the physical aspect of the dark room experience – bringing actual prints to life using chemicals and enlargers – the knowledge I learned in that class translates easily to any digital camera I could use now. And above everything else, it taught me to put some thought into the pictures I take.

Think Before You Shoot.

What I mean by thinking about each shot you make is that you should actively consider the subjects you’re framing with your lens. Imagine when you look through that view-finder or at your LCD screen on the back of your camera that you’re actually looking at a miniature painting. A painter considers what he must crop in and out of the image to make it effective and appealing. He considers the distance he is from his subject and what objects are between the viewer and that subject, as well as what objects are in the background. He thinks about the lighting in the area – how it hits his subject and affects the shadows and distinctions of everything in focus. Too often we think a flash is always appropriate, but even at night there are times when turning the flash off makes for a better photograph.

The Elusive Portrait.

I enjoy taking pictures of people. We’re used to smiling faces turned towards the camera and posed for the shot, but the truth is that there are plenty of interesting moments when someone isn’t looking directly into the lens. I like to experiment with different alignments. Our brain wants to put a single person right in the middle of the image, but try something new and see what happens to the dynamics of the picture if you place that individual against the border of your frame. Or instead of being eye level with your subject, get as low as you can on the ground or climb up on something and get a bird’s-eye view. If you have a group of people, stagger them so that some are in focus and some are just out of focus.

Photography can actually be more than just a means to capture the history of moments in our day-to-day lives. It can actually be an art form as well. Again, the point is to get away from the tempting ease of holding the camera up in front of your face and clicking the shutter to actually considering how everything within your frame is aligned. You’ll find it doesn’t take much effort to get your pictures to stand out from the rest, and the more effort you put into it, the better they’ll become. The key is to experiment, to step away from the traditional ideas you’re used to and try something a little different.

Editing Pictures Is An Extra Tool In Getting Quality Shots.

I also like to spruce up my pictures with a computer editing program. They’re pretty simple to download online and some computers have them already installed in their systems. After I upload my images I can try various cropping scenarios, add some unique touch-ups or work with the color schemes. For example, it wasn’t until I had them in an editing program that I realized that some of my full color pictures actually looked better in black and white. Basically, a good editing program gives you an extra step towards a good quality picture.

Think Of Your Camera As An Artist’s Brush.

Unique, interesting pictures are harder and harder to find. You don’t have to be a professional to have your photography stand out. Take a class, read a how-to book or just glance through magazines to sharpen your skills and show you the potential of what’s out there. Look at it as an art form, and you may begin to see photography, and the subjects you’re capturing in the frame of the viewfinder, a little differently. And most importantly, the quality of your images will reflect that change inside of you.