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ShareWant to know how to take better photos with your digital camera? Here are some tips that my wedding photographer gave to me on my wedding day. Its a list of five things you can do or remember to give all of your friends photo envy.
While I was on vacation last week my cousin and I got to talking about our new digital cameras. He asked how I was able to take such great photos and I shared some tips that my wedding photographer gave to me on my wedding day. Here is a list of five things you can do or remember to give your friends photo envy.
- Consider the background.
Have you ever taken a picture that would have been poster-worthy if only a tree wasn’t growing out the top of your subject’s head? Hundreds of thousands of photos each year are deleted from PCs and cameras worldwide because of pesky trees, flag poles and drain pipes. The worst part? It only takes a second of forethought to save all of that art.
When you think to yourself “Oh yeah baby... This photo is going to be awesome,” don’t get caught up in the moment and instead take a moment to consider everything in your viewfinder, because great photos have great backgrounds too!
- The whole world is 5-6 feet tall.
Almost everyone sees the world from the height of 5 or 6 feet. When snapping pictures of things or places, stop and tell yourself that everyone has already seen the picture you're about to take and look for an angle that they don’t see every day. Get down on the ground, climb up on a chair, zoom in or step back, just don't stand there.
Maybe you can get in really, really close and use “macro mode” (the “little flower” button on your camera) to add some great texture to the photo. Alternatively consider putting a person in the picture that is looking in the same direction as the lens. This shows the person looking at the photo the same thing as the person IN the photo sees and adds a new element to the composition.
Another way to add some interest is to capture a photo at a different time of day than people are expecting. Get up early, saty up late. Heck, take a portrait of a loved one while they are asleep in bed!
- Buy more memory cards.
Don’t brag about how many pictures your camera can take at once, brag about how big the files are on your computer when you're done. Mine are 8megs each!
You should always be taking the biggest possible pictures your camera can handle. Use super-fine resolution and huge pixel sizes. The idea is that you can never add information back into a picture once it has been taken. You can however always take information away using a computer. You can convert a photo to black and white but not to colour, or even resize down for your web site but not up to poster-size. Give yourself options and don't let the camera do anything but take pictures.
- Cropping is your friend.
Once the picture is taken you still have some options. In addition to removing red-eye, learn how to use the crop tool in your photo program (try Picasa!). You can drastically improve many photos by simply finding a picture within your picture. Crop the irrelevant background off of one side of your subject and move them from the middle or to one side by a bit. You’ll be amazed at how much better the finished product can be even for photos that were already great.
BTW: Cropping is exactly like the digital zoom in your camera, since it brings the subject closer to the viewer. Turn off digital zoom on your camera and stick with the optical zoom provided by your lens. You can always digital zoom 100X in the computer.
- Take lots of pictures
You’ve got a digital camera right? Who cares if you have to take 100 pictures to get one good one? You can delete 99 pictures in a few seconds on your computer and no one will ever know (unless you tell them). I currently average about 20-30 pictures taken per one that is worth keeping, and 100 to 1 for pictures that I actually want prints for. However, I take1000+ pictures a day while playing with my camera, so I always end up with something interesting -- even if it’s just by accident.
Hope this helps. If you have any tips please share them in the comments below. I'm sure we can all learn from each other.
1. K. Therriault ( 1 year ago )
Thanks for the insight Cam. having recently purchased a new Digital SLR Camera, all tips and advice on this subject are welcome. Another thing recently pointed out to me in regards to digital photography, was that if you are going to invest money in upgrading your camera equipment, the best place to put your money would be in the purchase of the proper lens for the job. I would think doing some research on the available lenses within your alloted budget would be a good start. According to my research, the need to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on a single lens is no longer necessary to achieve quality results.
Another important piece of advice I was given, and this can be applied to many things in everyones day to day life including digital photography, do not be afraid to ask questions! If anyone else has any digital photography tips or tricks of the trade, I would be most interested in hearing about them.