I began studying photography many years ago, and ever since I started my friends have always asked how I take such good pictures. There are a great amount of different photography styles and types, but the majority of the key photography tips work for most of them. Get an SLR Camera The first tip that I always give is to use a Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera. It is hard for me to understand why many self proclaimed amateur photographers use a snapshot camera. I know technology has grown at a fast pace and in doing so digital cameras and memory are getting better and better every day, but there is just not enough versatility with a point and click camera. They are great for general day to day snapshots, but they will never match up to the professional results and versatility obtained with an SLR camera. With that said, with more versatility come more functions. So, when you do start using a single lens reflex (if you do not already), make certain that you learn these functions from the owners manual. Learn which function controls the aperture size, the speed of the shutter, the white balance, and the film (ISO) settings. Note: ISO settings are only optional in a digital SLR. In regular SLRs, ISO is related to the film used. Do Not Always Rely on Cropping Many beginner photographers see a shot that they want but they take a larger perspective of what they want and have to crop the picture down to the scene that they were trying to capture. This just causes more work later, and there may not be much of a picture left after cropping out all of the distractions and unwanted scenery. When you look through the viewfinder, you are actually looking through the lens. This is why, with an SLR, ??what you see is what you get.?? By taking everything in the viewfinder into account, you may notice distractions that you otherwise would not have. Don't you hate it when you think you have captured a really good scene just to find out later that there was something distracting in the background? Seeing the Picture One of the most popular composition techniques is the Rule of Thirds. The first thing to do is divide the viewfinder into nine equally sized regions like a tic tac toe board. Where the dividing lines meet is where points of interest should be found in the shot. Relativey straight lines (vertical and horizontal), such as the edge of a building or a natural horizon, is best located on a vertical or horizontal grid line. This technique causes stress in the scene, and this stress causes interest. The more care taken in preparing a shot, the less likely time will be needed to "fix" the picture later. Note: Before each major session change, reset the white balance of your camera. Lighting conditions may change throughout the day (from session to session). Correcting white balance between sessions will cut down on necessary Photoshop corrections. The answer to how to take good pictures does not include using software to correct them later. Portraits Even though the techniques we just talked about work with just about any style, there are some techniques that work better with certain styles. With portraits, the subject does not encompass the entire scene so it is important for the subject to stand out. Shooting the subject in a narrow depth of field is one of the easiest ways to make sure that he or she stands out. The depth of field is the depth of the area in front of the camera that appears in focus. This is controlled by the size of the aperture opening. The lower the setting, the bigger the opening in the aperture and the more narrow the depth of field. Note: This allows more light into the body (through the lens) of the SLR so the settings of the film (ISO) and shutter must be changed to compensate. Shooting the subject in a narrow depth-of-field with the foreground and background out of the field causes only the subject to appear in focus. This results in the subject really standing out and even seeming to pop out of the picture. Landscapes Landscape photography is another style that has specific necessary techniques. With landscapes, the entire scene is the subject; it is usually necessary to shoot in a wider perspective to get as much of the scene into the shot as possible while keeping the whole scene equally in focus. To get this effect, a virtually infinite depth of field is needed. A lens that allows a broader perspective than the normal angle of view is also needed. This is why wide angle lenses are commonly used in landscape photography. These lenses allow a large perspective of a scene to be captured. A high aperture setting must be used in order to obtain an infinite depth of field. This causes the opening in the aperture to be very small. To compensate for this the shutter must be left open longer. With that understood, the longer the shutter is open the harder is is not to get blur caused by camera movement. This makes it absolutely necessary to use a tripod when doing landscape photography. I hope this article has been helpful. If it has helped in any way, the next time someone asks you for photography advice, feel free to share this article with them.
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