How to Take a Great Photo
by admin on Oct.22, 2008, under Digital Camera Basics
In my last post I talked about the basics of taking pictures. This morning I ran across a clipping out of The Rotarian, the Rotary International publication, about taking better photos. The following tips came from Kodak.com and were written by AP photographer J. Walter Green who attributes good instincts to his ability to take great photos. His tips focus on taking pictures of people and are applicable to all those family photos we take.
- Get down on their level: Hold the camera at eye level to capture the power of those magnetic gazes and mesmerizing smiles.
- Use a plain background: A cluttered background can be distracting, while a plain background will empasize you subject.
- Use flash outdoors: Even outdoors, use a fill flash to improve you pictures. It’s great for lighting dark shadows under the eyes and nose.
- Move in close: To create more impactful pictures, move in close and fill your picture with the object.
- Lock the focus: Lock the focus to ensure a sharp image when the object is off center. (Note: Look in your camera manual to see how to do this)
- Move it from the middle: Imagine a tic-tac-toe in your view finder. Now place the subject at one of the intersections of the lines.
- Know your flash’s range: Pictures taken beyond the maximum range will look too dark. Read you manual.
- Watch the light: Great light makes great pictures. For people, avoid overhead sun that casts harsh shadows across faces.
- Be the director: Don’t just be a passive picture taker. Add some props, rearrange your subjects (your family might hate this, but do it anyway), or try a different view point.
These tips of course apply to film and digital cameras. With a digital camera you generally have another opportunity to make the picture into a great photo. First, you can take a number of shots (because they are free) and pick the best one. And, you have the opportunity to edit a photo. As you will hear many times from me, every digital picture needs two edits as a minimum: crop and color corrected. We will cover editing photos in future post.
I have been taking pictures for more years than I care to admit to, with both film and digital cameras, and I found the above tips very helpful. We are never to old to learn from a pro.
