Photography 101: 5 Tips To Get You Started
While you can’t of course learn everything in one article about photography, this article provides 5 tips on the basics. Whether you have a point and shoot camera or are the proud owner of an SLR, there are a few basic concepts that once understood will get you on your way towards taking excellent photos. Here are five important and easy to use tips that you can start using right away.
1) Resolve to Have Enough Resolution
Although a low resolution setting saves space on your memory card, it doesn’t make suitable prints. You can easily resize for a smaller picture, even in free programs like Picasa (“resize” is hidden there under “export”), but making a picture larger usually brings awful results. When you enlarge the picture, the pixels that make up the image are spread thinner.
If you like printing your images, choose medium or high resolution. Depending on your camera, 3 megapixels should give you high quality 4×6 images and sometimes even a very nice 8×10. For excellent quality 11×14′s go for 6 megapixels.
2) Let There be Light (but Make it the Right Kind)
Natural lighting is usually best, so don’t worry if you don’t have a fancy flash and reflectors. If your only flash is the built-in one, that’s all the more reason to opt for natural light. Built-in flashes can make subjects look flat. That’s why the pros use an external flash and bounce light off the umbrellas. There are tricks you can use like wearing a white shirt or taping foil to the camera to bounce the light off the ceiling, but if you want an easy way to get professional quality photos without the equipment, go outdoors.
When taking pictures outdoors, consider the position of the sun. The lower the sun in the sky the better, except for sunrise and dawn. You should also try to avoid noon as this time brings the harshest shadows. Unless the sky is part of your photograph, bright overcast days produce the best light.
3) Compose a Perfect Picture
Getting a great snapshot without any thought mostly depends on luck. But by first learning how to compose a photo, you will end up with more pictures that look good and are suitable for framing. The photos you take will look more like what you pictured when you clicked the shutter release.
There’s enough to the Photography 101 subject of composition to fill several articles, but for starters, here’s the number one rule. Fill the frame of the viewfinder. First, decide on what is the most important subject in your photo and then move close enough (or zoom-optical zoom is best) to fill the viewfinder with the subject. For example, if the subject is your mother watering her roses then she is the subject not her entire rose garden. Many make the mistake of losing their subjects in the landscape.
4) Steady Now
It doesn’t take much camera movement to create a blur, in fact most times, you’ll never even notice the movement until you see the blurry picture. For sharp pictures, keep your elbows down, feet apart and firmly planted and hold the camera steady while pressing (not punching) the shutter release. Continue holding still until the light indicates the camera has finished taking the picture. When you are taking a photo that needs a slower than usual shutter speed, like a fireworks display, use a tripod to steady the camera. You can even use a bunched up coat on a wall with a remote shutter release. A good rule of thumb: use a camera support for shutter speeds slower than 1/60.
5) Share Your Creations
If your photos are digital, use a photo editor to bring copies (save originals) of your photos down to the appropriate size for your website, email, photo album or picture frame. You should use photo paper that is compatible with your printer model for best results. If you are using a film camera now but want to email pictures or post them on a website, use a quality scanner or have a CD made when the film is developed.
Save your best photos for displaying in a well made wooden picture frame. A photograph framed in a classic silver picture frame also makes a very welcome gift, especially when the subject is a portrait. Remember a portrait can be of a single person, family, multiple friends or a beloved pet…the list is endless, and again, these make lovely gifts, especially when framed nicely.
By using these five basic tips you’ll help expand your photography knowledge so you can start taking even better and more professional looking pictures.