TIPS FOR BETTER PICTURES
The path to better photography is the same as a musician’s route to Carnegie Hall: Practice, practice, practice.
But these tips, hacks, ideas and tactics will get you there faster. I’ve collected them from several teachers over the years.
Yet there are always exceptions. The better you understand the rules, the better you’ll know when to break them.
Get closer, physically. The more you fill your frame with your main subject, the better your chances of making a powerful image. Robert Capa, the great World War II photographer, was famous for this advice. Get closer, optically. A telephoto or zoom lens can shrink distances and compress compositions, so you can give viewers a tighter arrangement. (But on your smartphone, the quality/ resolution of the image may suffer the more you zoom.)
Get closer for Instagram’s sake. If you’re shooting with a smartphone and sharing on social media, most people will see your pictures on tiny screens. That means you need bold, simple compositions. Colorful details work better than broad, subtle landscapes.
Don’t be shy. Or rude. When you can, ask permission before you take a stranger’s picture. You might say: “Excuse me. This setting is gorgeous, and a picture will look even better with a person in it. Would you mind if I include you and your husband/ wife/child/pet?
Look for diagonal compositions. With any camera, beginning photographers may be tempted to compose images whose dominant lines run straight up and down or are as flat as the horizon. But diagonal lines can give pictures depth and lure viewers.
Read the manual. Or at least the good parts. You can’t get the best out of your gear until you understand what it can do.
Match your depth of field to your subject. With a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera, if you’re shooting a portrait, you’ll probably want a shallow depth of field that leaves your subject’s face sharp but blurs distractions in the background. If you’re shooting a landscape, try maximum depth of field so everything is sharp. For that result, use a higher aperture (F-stop), which means you’ll be using a slower shutter speed, a higher ISO or both. (You can’t control all these variables on a smartphone, but you can use an after-the-snap digital filter to give the effect of selective focus.)
Be patient. An unpopulated great photo location is like a stage set. If you wait a bit, someone will walk or stand or sit in just the right place, and you’ll have a livelier image.
Auto mode will take you only so far. Automatic settings are getting smarter, and all cameras are getting better in low light. But if you’re shooting a small, bright subject against a dark background (or something dark against a bright background), you may get a better result by shooting in manual mode, checking results and rejiggering accordingly. On most smartphones, you can tweak the exposure before the by touching the screen and moving your finger up (lighter) or down (darker).
Follow the Rule of Thirds. Instead of placing your subject dead center, imagine your frame lined into thirds, horizontally and vertically, so that your image area is sectioned into nine rectangles. Now look at the points where four rectangles come together. Those are sweet spots for placing your subject — not too near the middle, not too far off-center.
Simplify your composition. Do your best to exclude everything that might distract from your subject. Watch the corners of your frame where stray details can distract viewers.
Shoot from above. Nearly everybody looks better if you shoot their face from slightly above, not from below. Instagram might like squares, but some images want to be vertical or horizontal. Don’t fight that. Turn your camera or smart phone sideways.
Vary your angle.By varying the height of your camera — whether by crouching, lying down, climbing a ladder or holding the camera high — you give viewers a new way to see a familiar scene.
Use a tripod. If a full-size tripod is too much, consider a tabletop tripod or a mini-tripod with bendable legs. They’re affordable, fit in a pocket and offer many possibilities in low light.