Best Tips to Improve Your Digital Photos
There are many tips you can learn to improve your digital photography skills so you too can master the art and create your own stories to show. We’ll just go over a few today.
Lighting
If you take anything from this, remember that lighting is EVERYTHING. It can really make or break a photo. What you want to do is make the lighting look as natural as possible and as close to the real scene as you can.
Make sure your subject is evenly lit with the right amount of highlights and shadows. Avoid harsh lines of contrast as well as over and under exposed photos. You want to have the right balance between your highlights, shadows, and midtones, accentuating the focal points and letting the background blend together.
Mastering the skill of lighting will put you at the top with the pros.
Composition
Composition is another extremely important photography element. It’s actually a principle of design and since, as the photographer, you’re “designing” the story and the scene piece by piece, you need to fully understand how to compose a photo.
It helps to have “the eye” to really see the balance, flow, proportion, the entire layout of a scene before you shoot it. However, if you know what you’re looking for, you can train your eyes to envision it before you shoot.
You first need to have a focal point or a vanishing point, like a perspective drawing. Most digital cameras have guidelines in the viewfinder (you may need to turn this grid on) to help you compose your image. Use them to line up the elements in your photograph.
The Rule of Thirds
Imagine your photo divided into nine sections composed of three columns and three rows. Your camera’s guidelines actually create these sections for you so this will be easy to understand once you familiarize yourself with the grid. The human eye is naturally drawn to a point around two-thirds of the picture. Any of these points actually occur at every intersection created by the grid. What you want to do is line your subject up with these points instead of the exact center.
Your photos will be the most aesthetically pleasing when you use these lines. For example, use either of the horizontal grid lines to place over your horizon and either of the vertical lines to place over a tree or building or whatever other subject you may have.
Look for elements in the scene that compliment each other or balance each other out. You don’t necessarily want your viewer’s eyes to stay on one side of the photograph. You want to take their eyes on a ride, starting at the focal point and sweeping them around the entire photo for full satisfaction.
This is another topic worth learning more on because perfecting this skill will give you beautiful photographs every time.
Focus and the Use of a Tripod
Having your subject in focus is as equally important as lighting and composition. Could you imagine waiting for that once-in-a-lifetime shot that Mother Nature seldom gives and messing it up because it was out of focus?! It would be such a disappointment.
So to avoid blurry photos, you can use a tripod (with three legs) or as an alternative, a monopod (with one leg). There are advantages of each. If you have the space and a fairly even ground to set up on, then a tripod would do the job. But if you’re out in the wilderness with uneven terrain, roots, and other debris in your way, then a three-legged contraption like a tripod would be very awkward. Monopods aren’t as sturdy as a tripod but they are much sturdier than your own body, nervous with excitement to capture that perfect shot.
There are many more helpful tips to improve your digital photography skills. These mentioned are just the top, most important tips to master in order for you to have the perfect scene with the beautiful story unfolding in front of your viewer’s eyes. Succeed in these tips and you’ll be a digital photography pro.
