I don't mean to brag or anything, but lately, I've found my pictures getting better and better, and I'd like to share my tips and tricks with you guys. Without further ado...
PHOTOGRAPHY: How to Take a Good Photograph
1. Get the right lighting.
When it comes to photography, lighting is everything. Seriously, if you don't have good lighting, your picture can be completely messed up. It really all depends on what type of picture you're taking. If you're taking a silhouette, go ahead and position the sun behind your subject (without making it look like a overpowering halo). Pictures like this with good lighting can turn out like this:
The best times to take pictures are the mornings and evenings. Afternoon light can be very harsh, washing out your picture. On the other end of the scale, night photography can result in very dark pictures. You'll need to find somewhere with very good lighting if you want to take pictures in those darkened hours. The correct lighting can make all the difference, as outlined here:
2. Focus correctly.
Whenever you're doing a project, or working on anything, one thing vital to success is focus. The same thing is very important when taking photos. What you focus on can define what your picture is, and can draw the line between mediocrity and close to professional. The right focus can achieve things like this:
3. Make use of your tools.
To get a good, professional picture, you need a super-fancy, expensive camera, right?
WRONG.
You can take good pictures with just about anything. The key is to know how to use them. Close-ups are generally better with more high-end, professional cameras, such as my Canon Digital Rebel XTi. These cameras generally have the best focus, and take the most professional-quality pictures. Point-and-shoot cameras are best for traveling and are easy-to-use. They are the least versatile cameras, and have limited capabilities, meaning that these would probably be good for a beginner or a kid. Finally, we have the good old phone camera. Now, I don't have much experience with Android/Samsung, so what I say here will primarily outline the experience you get with the iPhone. The phone cameras are good for your everyday use, and can get very good panoramic shots. They are, of course, also well-suited to portrait-oriented shots.
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| This photo was taken with a point-and-shoot camera |
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| This photo was taken with an iPhone |
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| This photo was taken with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi |
4. Edit your pictures.
Good photographs pretty much never come out amazing at first. Most good photographs have the potential to reach the level of spectacular, but just as you never reach your goal without a little help, photographs don't either. To achieve that level of magnificence, you need to know how to edit your photos. Some people believe that you need super-fancy software to edit your photos, but I'll let you in on a little secret: All of my photos that I post on here go through three steps.
First, I put each photo through the Apple Photos editing software (aka the software that you see when you press the little "Edit" icon when viewing a photo). This is where basic retouches and tweaks take place. Second, all photos are uploaded to Google Photos, where I then put it through their editing software. This is slightly more advanced, for the Google Photos software has a larger variety of color-enhancing options, as well as a "Pop" option, where the photo's definition can be adjusted. Finally, if a photo has really good potential, like all the photos you see here, I have a slew of apps that I put the photos through to really bring them out. One of my favorites is Snapseed, a Google-made app. The best part of my routine is: it's all completely, 100% free!
Sometimes I like to skip steps, such as skip #1, or omit #3. The one step that I am pretty much guaranteed to do is step #2.
5. Know your friends.
When I say this, I don't really mean your friends (although those are nice to have). I mean your friends and foes in photography. As I said above, the right lighting is your friend, and can help define a picture. Speaking of defining pictures, contrast can also be your friend, but in moderation. When used correctly, it can really make your photo stand out, especially in close-up pictures (see the photo taken with the Canon above). A little bit of vignette never goes wrong, but don't use too much, otherwise it can turn out weird. A photographer's biggest enemies are bright light, no light, fog, smoke, and moving objects. These can really mess up your photo, so probably don't mess with those. A lot of color doesn't harm a picture, as long as it isn't overpowering. This leads us to our next point...
6. Bring out the color.
As stated before, color can really help your picture. What I like to do is pick a certain color that really stands out in the picture and try to bring that out using whatever softwares I have. This really makes pictures stand out and makes them high-quality. Looking at the pictures I have shown above, try and find the color that stands out the most.
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| Blue really stood out in this picture, owing to the sea and the sky, so I brought that out as much as possible. |
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| This is a good picture: good contrast, good lighting, color brought out, good focus. Perfect! |
7. Always take extras.
Sometimes the circumstances are just right, and you just need to take a picture. Nobody's stopping you, so go full steam ahead. Just make sure to take extras. Sometimes the picture doesn't turn out right, or something happens. You're going to thank yourself if you do this, so never forget to take extras. Don't worry about storage; you can always keep your favorite and delete the others.
8. Watermark your photos.
When you take a good photo, you want to share it to the world, right? However, sometimes there are those people that like to take credit for other people's work. To arm yourself, you need to watermark your photos. This is completely optional, and I don't do it on all my photos. If you look at some photos on here (the one above is a good example), you can see a faint logo of the letter "A" in the corner. That is my watermark. You want a watermark that you have made yourself, otherwise then you'll be taking credit for another's work. You will probably need a software to add on a watermark. An app I use fr this is an app called MaxCurve, which, along with editing tools, has a watermark and copyright tool.
9. Have fun with it.
There's not really a "right" way to take photographs; everyone does it differently, so you can experiment how you like with it. Just make sure to do it how you like to do it, and you'll achieve some of your best shots.
To wrap up this post, I'll share an an album to you guys consisting of some of my best shots. (Note: most of these photos are watermarked.)
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