Ten Tips to Better Photography

Taking a good photo isn't as hard as you may think. You don't need the most expensive camera or years of experience, just 10 simple tips.

Enjoy!

Tip 1 - Use All Your Available Space

Don't be afraid to use all the space in your photo. If you want to take a picture of something, it's ok for it to take up the whole shot with no or very little background showing. Keep distractions out of your shot

Tip 2 - Study Forms

This is a vital aspect to photography. Understanding forms in your photos. Don't see an object, she its shape and its form and find the best angle to photograph it from. Form is all around us and I highly suggest you read as many books on it as possible.

Tip 3 - Motion In Your Photos

Never have motion in your photos if you are photographing a still object. If there is something moving while you are trying to photograph a stationery object, your photo won't turn out anywhere near as well. Also never put a horizon line in the center of your frame.

Tip 4 - Learn To Use Contrasts Between Colors

Some of the best photos have shades of white, gray and black. You can take great shots with just one color on your subject, but the contrasts between colors in a shot is what makes you a great photographer.

Tip 5 - Get Closer To Your Subject

This is one of the biggest mistakes most photographers make, not getting close enough to their subject. Get up and personal and close the distance gap. You can always reshape and resize a good shot but you can't continue to blowup a distant object.

Tip 6 - Shutter Lag

Shooting action shots with digital camera's can be tricky due to shutter lags. What this means is, when you press the button to take the photo, it can take up to a second for the shutter to take a photo, by that time what you were photographing would have moved or changed somehow. This means you have to compensate for shutter lag by predicting what your subject is going to do and taking the photo just before it takes the action you want. More expensive digital cameras don't have this problem.

Tip 7 - Pan

If you are taking an action shot and your shutter speed is slow, pan with the object. Follow through with the subject, from start to finish and one of those shots will be a winner. You have more chance of getting a good shot if you take more then one photo.To pan you will need a camera that does continuous shots and doesn't need to stop and process after every shot.

Tip 8 - Flash Photography

When using flash remember that the light emitted from your flash unit is a two dimensional coverage.  When photographing groups of people, people in the front row may get more light and people in the back row get less. Try to place your subject within the same plane.

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Tip 9 - How To Take Fantastic Night Time Shots

Night time shots can be spectacular, almost magical.... if done right! If not they can look horrible.  Without adequate lighting most night time shots are blured due to camera movement. When using a shutter speed below a 60th of a second using a tripod or bracing the camera against a solid surface is advisable. If you don't have a tripod handy raising the camera's ISO rating will help to boost shutter speeds.

Tip 10 - Formating your Memory Card

From time to time you will need to reformat the storage card where your images will be saved. By doing so you keep your memory card from becoming corrupt.  Before doing this be certain to copy or move wanted photo to your computer or archive them to a cd as a format will delete all images.
It is recomended you reformat at least once a month depending on your quanity of photos you shoot.