You have used a camera your whole life but now you want to make a clear distinction between picture taking and art. You want to know what it takes to produce quality images. The advice in this article will give you all you need to know to take your photography to the next level.
Learn how to play with the shutter speed. You can choose to snap a quick picture or choose a slower exposure to capture a flow or movement in its entirety. You will need to experiment with this and find what kind of speed matches certain situations. This is a matter of personal style rather than a general guideline to follow.
Don’t be afraid to try new techniques, even if it means taking a risk. An excellent picture needs to have its own personal style to it. Show this point of view to the rest of the world. Don’t do the things that have been done several times before. Instead, shoot from unique angles, and be creative with your compositions.
You should think about getting a tripod. A good tripod offers you more stability and allows you to take your time composing your picture. Get a tripod that give you flexibility in height and positioning. Tripods are a useful tool for certain kinds of pictures only. Do not use a tripod if you are looking for a unusual angle.
Pre-focus your camera before moving slightly, so your subject isn’t centered in the frame. Having the subject centered in-frame is quite common; such photos are at a disadvantage when it comes to being memorable. Take interesting pictures by making the subject off center.
To create an unusual and creative photograph, try changing your perspective. People are used to seeing things from normal human-height and eye-level viewpoints. Getting up high or down low can drastically change how a scene appears. Done right, this will create a startling, memorable shot that your viewers will appreciate.
Are you aware of the “magic hours” in photography? This time period refers to the times of day known as dusk and dawn. These magical times create very soft and warm lighting conditions. There is only 45 minutes around sunrise and sunset to add this beautiful light to your shots, so plan accordingly.
When you are dealing with low lighting settings and you do not have a tripod, try to be aware of your shutter speed. Make sure it has a denominator that is greater than the focal length of the lens. Otherwise, you will not be able to capture sharp images.
Most pictures are taken with the camera at or near the subject’s eye level. Common sense says this is good, but get the “WOW” factor by changing the angle from which you shoot. Try shooting down at the subject from higher up or get close to the ground and shoot up.
A lot of times in photography, people will stare right into the camera. For striking photographs, have your subject focus their eyes on something off-camera. Another idea is to tell your subject to concentrate on something or someone in the frame of the shot, without looking directly at the camera.
Filters that you should consider investing in include; the polarizing filter to decrease the amount of reflections, the colorizing filters for an added richness in different colors, and the IR filter to shoot in the dark. Many filtering effects can now be added after the photo is taken with photo editing software.
When all is said and done, anybody can take a picture but it takes a true artist to have their photography considered art. You should find that the many helpful hints in this article will help to get you on the right path if that is indeed your goal.
