5 tips to Take better photos
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I have been taking photos for my blog since 2015 and since then I practiced shooting every day. I challenged myself in 2015 to take a photo every day and post it on my Instagram account. Today I teach photography via online courses or workshops and the most common question that I hear from my students is:
“how do you do to take better photos?”
So here are 5 tips I can give you to improve your photography game.
Shoot RAW
This is something every photographer will tell you and that is for a reason, shooting RAW allows you to capture much more information than a compressed JPEG format. The main benefit is that it will allow you to edit your photos later on without degrading the quality of your original photo. Sure the file might take more space on your memory card, but being able to bring an under exposed photo to life or a few details within your photo without affecting the whole image is worthy. I personally use Lightroom CC to edit and store all my photos. If you’d like to know my edit workflow have a look at How To Use Lightroom presets to edit your photos in one click on your smartphone.
Lenses
Pick a lens with a fast aperture, meaning with a f stop ranging from 1.4 or lower to 2.8. These lenses are expensive and the most used by professional photographers because they allow you to capture a nice smooth buttery blurry background every photographer is after. This will add value to your photos making them look more professional and will attract you more customers.
Nowadays, most smartphones also offer what’s called a “portrait mode” that replicate this blurry background effect. If you are on a lower budget, a smartphone can absolutely also do the job.
Still wondering what first camera to choose? Have a read at my beginner’s guide.
Understand Lighting
Understanding lighting is very important as a photographer. Whether you shoot with a flash or use natural light, the light can make or break your image. It is recommended to shoot during the golden hour, either in the morning at sunrise or in the evening at sunset because it is the time of the day when the light is soft and make your photos look amazing. You can of course shoot during the day, but it is not ideal because of the sun harsh light. Especially when shooting portraits, your model might end up with panda eyes due to the shadows. That’s something to bear in mind.
A workaround would be to use an ND (Neutral Density) filter that acts as sunglasses for your camera lens.
Pro tip: For instance, this is how long exposure effects photos of waterfalls with smooth silky water are taken during the day.
Shoot in manual mode
Understand the exposure triangle and shoot manual. Yes, you can use aperture priority or shutter priority modes on your camera. But if you want to fully control your camera and get the best results out of it, you need to understand how to shoot manual. This is something I offer in this free guide to help you play around with the manual settings of your camera and understand how they affect each other. It takes some time to get familiar with it, but once you understand them, shooting manual will become automatic.
Post production Edit and preset
Do not neglect the post production. To me, shooting a photo without editing it is like going to Disney Land and not go to any attractions! Unless that is your style of photography and you are very talented, I totally understand. But if not, you are missing out. Editing your photos is the moment when you can bring the idea you had before taking your photo to life. Some styles of editing are even used by many photographers to distinguish themselves from others.
If you are a beginner, I’d recommend you to use Lightroom Presets in order to understand the editing tools and how they can affect a photo. Once you understand the way they work, you will be able to come up with your own style and create your own presets.
** Quick shameless plug - You can grab my Lightroom Travel Presets 201 9 by clicking here! **
Those are my 5 main tips to help you take better photos. There are many others, but I believe by already mastering these 5 tips, you will be able to improve your photography game a lot.
Would you like to learn my 3 step approach to photography? Click here to learn more.
What about you? Do you have any tips to provide to take better photos?
As always, if you enjoyed reading this article, make sure to like it, it actually makes a difference. And if you know anyone that is starting to learn photography and would like to learn a few new tips, do not hesitate to share this article with them.
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