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- Todd Vorenkamp
- Shoot every day Like any skill, the more you do it, the better you can get. The best camera you have is the one in your hand, so if you aren’t out with your full DSLR kit, don’t be afraid to take great photos with your cell phone camera or a point-and-shoot.
- Always have your camera near Pull up a chair and I can describe two amazing scenes that have been indelibly embedded in my mind. Unfortunately, for the first, my camera was broken (I was at sea, far from a camera store).
- Read your manual Camera manuals aren’t engaging reading, but they do tell you a lot about how to use your camera. Spend a night or two with your manual and get intimate with your camera.
- Check your settings / know your gear I have often been tempted to put the following note on a sticker and affix it to my LCD screen: “Check your ISO, dummy.”
- Choose A Camera That Suits Your Shooting Needs
- Shoot in golden-hour Lighting For The Best Tones
- Shoot in Cloudy Light to Enhance Your Colors
- Use Frontlight to Evenly Illuminate Your Subject
- Use Backlight For Deeply Dramatic Images
- Use Sidelight to Bring Out Texture
- Use The Rule of Thirds to Balance Your Compositions
- Carefully Choose The Best Aperture For The Scene
- Use A Fast Shutter Speed For Sharp Images
- Create Impressionistic Photos with Slow Shutter Speeds
When it comes to capturing beautiful photos… …there’s no perfect camera. Instead, the best camera depends on your own shooting needs. It depends on whether you want to capture portraits or wildlife, landscapes or travel photos. But here’s a few quick recommendations: The cameras that combine power and affordability are DSLRs and mirrorless cameras....
Great photos start with great light. And the absolute best light of all, the light that photographers love… …is golden-hour light. Now, the golden hours refer to the hour or two after sunrise, and the hour or two before sunset. During the golden hours, the sun is low in the sky. And it casts a beautiful golden glow over the entire scene. Which is e...
Golden-hour lighting works well in pretty much every photographic situation. But what if you don’t have golden-hour lighting? What then? Unfortunately, harsh midday lighting, when the sun is high in the sky, rarely looks good. But there’s one type of light that is great for a more subtle look: Cloudy light. You see, clouds diffuse the harsh sunligh...
Even once you’ve secured good light, you still have to make sure you use it properly. In particular: If you’re shooting in golden-hour light, then you have to pay attention to its direction. Does it come from behind you? In front of you? Off to the side? Light that comes from behind you to hit your subject is known as frontlight. This is a go-to ty...
Frontlight is great for producing an evenly lit photo. But what if you want something a bit more dramatic? That’s where backlight comes in. Backlight comes from behind your subject, and it gives you dramatic images, like this: Now, to take advantage of backlight, you have to shoot into the sun. So point yourself in the direction of the sunlight, an...
Sidelight is your third golden-hour lighting option. Now, sidelight is a bit less common than frontlight and backlight. This is because sidelight is good for one main thing: bringing out texture. Basically, sidelight comes from off to the side of your subject. It casts shadows in places where texture exists, which makes the texture stand out. You c...
The rule of thirds is a fundamental guideline of composition. It states: The best photos position their main subjects a third of the way into the frame. The rule of thirds comes with a set of helpful gridlines, like this: Basically, if you want to create a nice, balanced, satisfying composition, I recommend you place your main subject (and any othe...
The aperture is a hole in the lens of your camera. You control it via the dials on your camera. When the aperture is wide open, more light comes through the lens, and gives you a brighter photo (all else being equal). This is represented as a low f-number, like this: f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, etc. And when the aperture is closed down, so that it’s very sm...
Shutter speed refers to the length of time the camera sensor is exposed to the light. In other words, your shutter speed is how long you actually take a picture for. Related Post: Working with Shutter Priority Now, if you use a slow shutter speed, it creates the potential for intense blur. Because so many things can happen while the shutter is open...
I know I said it’s important to use a fast shutter speed for sharp photos. And it is–usually. But you occasionally don’t want to capture sharp shots. Sometimes, you want to get more artistic photos, using something called Intentional Camera Movement (ICM). Here’s how it works: Select a slow shutter speed, something between 1s and 1/20s. Then take a...
Power up your photo skills. Get tips on equipment choice, exposure, shutter speed, light settings, and more from top photo pros. Discover composition techniques like the rule of thirds and find inspiration in different photography styles such as landscapes and portraiture.
- Work with Your Composition. To take engaging photos, you need to be engaged with what you’re doing. Don’t just fly by on autopilot. Instead, put thought into your composition and try to make your photos as good as possible.
- Use the Camera You Already Have. Camera gear is not all that important. There are countless cameras, lenses, and other accessories on the market today.
- Learn Which Settings Matter. There are a lot of camera settings, and it takes some practice to get them right, especially as a beginner. Even advanced photographers won’t always do everything perfectly.
- Don’t Overexpose Highlights. When you are picking your camera settings, it is critical to avoid overexposing highlights in a photo. The reason? It’s simply impossible to recover any detail from white areas of a photo.
- Take control of focus. Leave your camera to its own devices and it will focus using the central focus point. While this will produce sharp images in many situations, for more creative photography it's better to take some control over the focus point.
- Focus on moving subjects. Focusing on a static subject is all well and good, but not everything will wait patiently for you while you compose and capture your shot.
- Understand what makes a shot blurry. When it comes to mastering focus, you also need to know why your shots aren't sharp. This can be down to focusing, but it may also be due to camera shake or the subject moving.
- Get white balance right. You might forget all about setting the right white balance – especially if you shoot in raw, as then you can change it when you process your images later.
1. Visit an art museum. I can’t overstress the importance of art appreciation for photographers. Many shooters tend to separate more traditional art mediums (e.g., painting) from photography, but they’re intimately related – and if you want to get better at photography, then become an admirer and student of the art world.
Dec 24, 2018 · Digital camera tips: 1. Always reset your camera settings. There are few things worse than taking what you think is a stunning picture, only to find your camera's ISO and saturation were...
