So you’re thinking about starting a new hobby and photography is at the very top of your list. As exciting a pastime as photography can and will be for you it can be equally as daunting, especially for beginners, from megapixels to apertures, one can quickly become overwhelmed.
But don’t be discouraged, every master of their craft started somewhere and following tips will help you improve your pictures with no real technical knowledge required, so let’s begin.
5. Exposure
The world we live in varies from extremely bright to dauntingly dark and your camera can only capture so much within that range. Controlling the amount of light being captured can really change the quality of images you produce.
A simple way of doing this on your camera is the “exposure compensation” button, dedicated dial or a menu option, normally recognised by the +/- sign.
If the sky is photo-bombing your picture by being too bright, lean more towards the negative (-) and likewise for shadows creeping into your frame, simply adjust more to the plus (+) side to get rid of the little buggers. So play around with exposure until you like what you see and shoot, mastering exposure will give your photos a little more character about them.
Achievement unlocked! You’ve just discovered the most powerful photography concept, feel better now? Not as complicated as you first thought is it?
How playing with lighting can change your image
4. Light
Now that you’ve grasped the concept of how light affects shots, let’s go find some. The World we live in offers some fantastic situations where light can be more dramatic than a teenage girl dealing with her first break up.
The ideal time to make use of this dramatization would be during the infamous golden hour. This pretty theatrical name refers to the hour right around sunrise and the hour right before sunset and you can probably guess where the inspiration for the name comes from.
The contrast (another term you can now throw around in casual conversation), which is the interplay between light and dark areas will radically improve the personality of your pictures.
Shooting an image during the golden hour
3. Composition
Composition like its name refers primary to position. However it’s made up of 3 distinct parts, namely
- What’s in frame
- What’s not in frame
- Where in the frame the subject of the image is
A simple guideline for composing called the Rule of thirds will help you put a little science and technical know-how to your shooting. Cut the frame up into 9 sections made up of 3 horizontally and 3 vertically and place the subject on one point where 2 lines meet.
Having the subject you’re shooting slightly to the side can make your images way more appealing. So we encourage you to please try to be a little off centre for once in your life.
Shooting an image off centre
2. Focus
Focus, not the new movie starring Will Smith, but more along with lines of we hope you’ve concentrated on what we’ve been teaching you up until now. Focus is of the utmost importance in photography.
Typically a cameras shutter button has a feature you may not be familiar with, holding the button halfway down, instructs your camera to lock onto a subject and focus on it, normally displaying a coloured box of some sort as an indicator of what it will turn its attention towards. Some cameras even beep to say, hey I’m ready to shoot.
For now, try to keep what you want into focus. For portraits of people or pets try focus on the eyes above all else and then the rest while the background can blur away. For landscapes however, you may need to do a little tinkering to find landscape scene mode, to keep the entire frame you are wanting to shoot, in focus.
Keeping your subject in focus
1. Perspective
Now for numero uno, the tip that will really give your images a “I know what I’m doing’ feel is perspective. Since most of us experience the world from the same eye line, as a photographic newbie playing around with angles is essential.
Shoot from lower, higher, directly above or below. Zoom in, zoom out mix it up with lighting and composition. See your subject from different views, there are literally 100s of different ways to capture the same subject.
Shooting an image from above
One last thing to remember!
There is no instant masterclass, no set manual to becoming a great photographer, merely guidelines and the rest spells from the creativity of your mind’s eye.
So get out there, practise and always keep in mind the fundamentals you’ve just learned and watch your photos drastically improve. Experimentation is key and we would love to see what you come up with, post your attempts on our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages.
Happy Snapping fellow Cameralanders.
