10 basic photography tips
So how can you help yourself to become a better photographer?
Well firstly it would do you no hardship to read my top 10 tips. These tips are born not from a book or an afternoon brain storming session, they're born from a few years experience, plenty of mistakes and listening to what other good photographers have to say.
- Understanding your cameras functionality
- Learning the controls off by heart
- Not getting hung up on megapixel wars
- Learning what exposure, aperture and ISO mean
- Why memory is important
- Take a second to think
- Learn the rule of thirds
- Use a tripod, bag, boot or bench
- Always take a double take
- Be sure to have fun
1. Understanding your cameras functionality
I've been a victim myself of a shiny box. You go in the shop, pick the biggest and best camera you can afford, you take it home, lovingly unwrap it, flick through the instructions and then fumble around with the camera before giving up and using it to take the odd 'snap' here and there.
The best thing you could do is to read that manual. And then read it again.
2. Learning the controls off by heart
Imagine this, you're in a dark field, you're mates are running around you and one of them falls over naked, into a bear, that's wearing lipstick and playing air guitar and by the time you've fumbled around with your camera's settings, using your mobile for light, the bear has gone and you're friend is dressed on their way home.
Don't waste any opportunity; spend 5 minutes every time you use your camera going over the settings. Not sure what something does? Read the manual or have a go and see what it does.
3. Not getting hung up on megapixel wars
Don't get hung up on megapixels. Joe Bloggs thinks the more megapixels you have the better. This can be true to an extent, usually the higher quality build cameras have more megapixels, but the person behind the camera will make far more difference to the photo than the number of megapixels ever will.
Head to your nearest camera store, try a camera in the shop and pick the one that suits you and feels right in your hands. Ask the assistants about the quality of the sensor, the lens and what depth of functionality it offers. The number of megapixels you want for 10 x 8 prints are 6 and 8 or more for will give you A4 prints and above.
4. Learning what exposure, aperture and ISO mean
To break it down to the most basic explanation, exposure is the amount of light that hits the camera sensor, aperture can control the amount of light that can hit the sensor and the ISO regulates as to how sensitive the sensor is to the light.
- Exposure - you can adjust your cameras exposure up and down. Raise the exposure in dark conditions, lower it in brighter conditions
- Aperture - a wide aperture lets a lot of light in, but the depth of focus is shallow, conversely a narrow aperture lets less light in, but has a deeper depth of field
- ISO - the lower the ISO, the less noise you have and the less light you let in. The default is around 100 and it provides a decent quality photo. The higher the ISO, the more noise you have, but the sensor artificially boosts the lighting of the photo. High ISO ranges from 1600 on compacts to 25600 on professional cameras, photo quality degrades rather rapidly as you move up the scale
5. Why memory is important
Digital cameras use lots of different types of memory cards these days and many cameras have limited built-in memory too. I'm not going to discuss the differences between the memory formats in this article, but my best advice is to buy a spare.
Modern electronics may be a marvel of size, power and efficiency, but mother nature and butter fingers can reduce that technology to a mere in-effective paper-weight in seconds.
Few pointers when it comes to memory cards:
- Always download your images to your pc and wipe the files after you've made a back-up
- Take at least 2 cards with you to any important events or dates
- Don't buy massively large storage cards that can store 30,000 photos only to see you lose all 30,000 in one fell swoop. Split your photos across several cards. I use 2GB cards on an 8 megapixel camera.
- Always keep used cards separate from clear cards
- Buy from a quality brand and buy new ones if you ever have any corruption issues
6. Take a second to think
I've had so many near shots when I've just looked up, snapped in a second and moved on. I didn't think about the shot, review the shot afterwards or really consider my camera settings, believing my camera knew what was best for me.
Frame the shot, check your camera settings against the lighting conditions, take the shot, review and take another shot for good measure.
7. Learn the rule of thirds
This little rule when applied to landscape or scene usually brings the best photograph out of it. The rule is simple, take one aspect of the shot and frame it so it takes up a third of the viewfinder. Take the next aspect and frame that as another third and you're last aspect should automatically fill the rest.
You may find that you will need to zoom, move or come back later for your shot, but by following the rule of thirds you're shots will be so much better for it.
8. Use a tripod, bag, boot or bench
Reducing camera shake from your hands, the wind or rain can make the difference between a good sharp photo and a ruined blurred mess.
If you have a tripod/monopod and you can easily bring it with you, and then by all means use it. Even in good light conditions, a tripod/monopod can make a very notable difference. I find monopods are great for sporting events, where you have to constantly be on the move. I also use them for wedding photography too.
If you haven't got access to either a tripod or monopod, then place your camera on a bench, bag, empty boot or the floor.
9. Always take a double take
I mentioned this above in 'Take a second to think' tip, but I feel it's important enough to mention again on its own.
Digital cameras are evolution of photography. They allowed the user to take a photo, review it and then shoot an improved shot within seconds. Of course, some take that to the extremes and snap away like it's a machine gun, but the essential idea that you can review and reshoot on the fly gives you a great opportunity to get the photo you really want.
10. Be sure to have fun
This is almost a cliché these days 'make sure you have fun no matter what you do' etc, but in reality the more fun you are having taking photos, the better your photos will be. It's pretty much a folk lore fact. If you want to spice up your photography life, join a club, get a friend interested or set yourself 'rules' where you need to take a photo of what you're looking at every 20 minutes. You'll soon find your skills will increase and you'll be enjoying your hobby even more.
Well that's been a pretty long top basic 10 photography tips, but I hope it's helped.
Look out for more articles in the near future.
NB: This guide is biased towards digital cameras.