A number of people have sent E-mail complimenting me on my photos and asking if I'm a professional photographer. To those people, I say thank you for the compliments and that I am an "advanced amateur" picture taker! I've also been asked for information on how to take better pictures without spending a lot of money for gadgets, so I thought it might be a good idea to post a web page giving some simple tips which can help any amateur photographer take pictures that will grab your viewer's attention!
The first tip is by
far the most important, the remainder are not prioritized:
The first
and most important tip ~ take a lot of pictures, then get rid of most of them!
Have you ever
been looking at a friend's scrap book or slide show, then found yourself
yawning after a few
minutes? Ten minutes after that you decide
that sitting in the dentist's chair having a root canal would be more fun than
looking at these pictures! This is because most amateur photographers save
every single picture. Don't do this ~ save only the quality pictures and
toss out (delete) the rest. What's left will be much more interesting then
what you started with. Typically, I discard 50% ~ 90% of all my pictures,
leaving behind photos that I think are reasonably nice looking and/or
interesting. If you're not sure how to tell if a photo is worth saving or
not, read on ~ these tips will help.
Use
telephoto when photographing people.
You may have heard
that the camera adds pounds to a person. This is true, generally the
camera adds up to 10 pounds to the average adult's apparent weight. This
effect can be reduced by stepping back, then taking your picture using the 105
mm. (or greater) setting with 35 mm. cameras, or the 3X (or greater) optical
zoom setting with digital cameras. If you take close ups or portraits of
your subjects, these setting become VERY important ~ you don't want your friends
or family to have "balloon" faces!
Frame
your outdoor pictures.
Take a picture of a
mountain. Now take a picture of the same mountain, but before you do move around
so
that a bit of greenery from a tree shows along the top of the frame. Or move in a different direction so that the
trunk of a tree or a shrub shows along the left or right of the frame, then take
the picture.
This technique is called "framing" and will improve just about any
outdoor picture.
Do
not center the picture on a person's face.
I'm not sure why,
but many amateur photographers seem to place a person's face directly in the
center of their frame, typically yielding a picture that cuts the person off
half way down and shows a LOT of sky or wall above the subject. This tip
is simple, just ensure that a person's face is near the top of the frame before
pushing the button.
Divide
horizons in thirds.
The typical amateur
will center the horizon in the picture's frame. To make the picture more
interesting, divide the picture in thirds; i.e. 1/3 sky and 2/3 landscape, or
2/3 sky and 1/3 landscape.
Take
portraits of animals.
Pictures of your
pets, animals in the zoo, birds, etc., can be quite a bit more interesting if
you take the picture of your subject only from the neck up. Of course a
telephoto or zoom lens helps immeasurably. Reread the "Use telephoto
when photographing people" tip, since this information also applies to animals.
Have
your subject do something.
Pictures of people
or animals are nice, but they can be much more interesting if your subject is
doing something besides standing or sitting there looking back at the
camera. Compare a picture of a person standing there looking at the
photographer to a picture of the same person catching a baseball and you'll see
what I mean. Or compare a picture of a dog sitting in the grass to a
picture of a dog jumping into a pool after a ball. In reality, all a
person has to do is to wave at the photographer and smile to make a picture more
interesting!
Use
natural light for indoor photos.
Of course this
isn't always possible, but if it's daytime and you open your blinds to let more
light in, you'll be surprised to find that there is often enough light to take
photographs without using your flash. This natural light will add a much more complimentary
lighting to just about all indoor pictures compared to flash.
Never
use the digital zoom.
It's nice to get
really close to your subject through the use of features provided with your
digital camera, but the typical digital zoom moves you closer to your subject at
the cost of picture clarity. Use the optical zoom only when taking
pictures, then if you want to enlarge any part of the picture use software such
as Adobe's Photo Shop. Tip: If you're shopping for a new digital
camera, ensure that you get a 10X - 20X optical zoom and ignore any
specifications that apply to the digital zoom. Note that zoom lenses this
size often are "stabilized". Although stabilization is a very useful
feature, it is not an absolute requirement.
Use ISO
100 with digital cameras.
Digital cameras generally offer ISO settings of "Auto" though ISO 1600
or thereabouts. Use ISO 100 only in order to prevent fuzzy (noisy)
pictures.
Shorten
the camera strap.
Shorten your strap so the camera doesn't hang too far below your
chin. The camera will seem lighter, as well as being a shorter trip
to your eye when want to take a picture. Additionally, it won't bounce
around as much when you're walking.
Install a
neutral filter.
Purchase an inexpensive UV or Skylight filter, clean your lens carefully using a lens cloth
and camel hair brush, clean both sides of the filter, install the filter, then leave it in place forever. The filter will have only a tiny positive
effect on your overall photos, but it will protect the lens from
"bumps", as well as being substantially easier to clean than the lens.
Additionally, you may now stop using your lens cap! :)
Use
software to fix and/or enhance your pictures.
I've come to the conclusion that every photograph can be improved with
the right software. Full featured programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel
PaintShop Pro Photo, etc. are good choices for software that will help make your
photos better. Buy a suitable program, then learn all you can about it by
checking the publishers web pages for tutorials, tips, and message forums; read
the program help docs, etc. Once you become proficient with your program,
you'll be amazed just how much improvement you can get from all your digital
pictures. I use Corel PaintShop Pro Photo (version X9) and can highly recommend
it. As well as being inexpensive, it is full featured and easy to
use. The following is an example of how a few minutes spent with PaintShop Pro Photo
can improve a poor picture:
BEFORE
AFTER
If you're interested in seeing a before/after rendering from
the scan of a particularly bad slide, take a look at the following pictures:
ORIGINAL
FIXED
Review
this page again periodically.
After you've shot a few hundred pictures or so, come back and read all these
tips again. This will refresh your memory, as well as pointing out why
some of your pictures may be better than others.
If anybody has any
simple and practical tips they would like to add to this list, or has any
before/after pictures that would help me better illustrate these tips, please
contact me by clicking
here or on the "Send E-mail" link below.
You may use any of the above pictures or text for any purpose and may do so without giving me credit. Note that these pictures have been downsized for those with slow connection speeds. If you'd like copies of the original JPG pictures, send me an E-mail telling me which pictures you want and I'll be happy to send the original pictures to you at no charge!
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