Photo Tips

1. No Matter How Pro You Get, It’s Still a Passion Play

Don’t ever lose the spark that got you into photography. Your passion for creating beautiful images of things that interest you is the underlying motivating force behind every shoot you do. When that spark goes out, it also leaves your images. So, treat your inspiration and creativity as the most vital skill you have. Honor it, cultivate it, nurture it.

2. Lighting Is Everything

You can always get to know light better. Whether it’s moving from studio to natural light, from day shooting to night shooting or from flash to continuous light – stay a constant observer of this most important part of photography. Learning more, seeing more, trying more.

If you shoot golden light a lot, try midday. If you always shoot natural, see what happens when you add flash. And if you’ve never done night photography, give it a go. It’s all different ways of capturing light. And it’s all beautiful.

3. Establish Your Own Compositional Rules

Whether it’s an adherence to the rule of thirds, a love of circles, filling the frame, dramatic lines or repeating patterns, your choices in how you frame a shot defines you as a photographer. Know what appeals to you and create your voice through your compositions.

4. It’s All in the Details

Audiences love detail and light provides it. The more light, the more detail. But don’t forget to keep a steady hand, too. This is the physical skill of taking photos – keeping the camera level and still. Keep improving your abilities here, use a tripod when necessary and remember that there are surfaces everywhere to place a camera on or steady yourself with. Also, most new cameras have the ability to click a shutter with your phone. Take advantage of every tool you have to get as much detail in every shot.

5. Shoot like a Pro, Think like a Student

There’s nothing less impressive than the know-it-all photographer. As good as your shots get, there’s always room to learn and improve. When you keep a student mentality, it keeps you curious and hungry. And this keeps you getting better. As soon as you think you got this all down, you join the ranks of the jaded and uninteresting. Stay thirsty, put yourself in places that challenge you.

6. Sometimes Auto Is Exactly What Is Needed

It’s true, mastering your camera and all its settings makes you a more flexible photographer, and there are certain kinds of shots that simply cannot be achieved without taking the reins on your camera’s controls. However, there are also plenty of situations where auto can be a life-saver. No need to make life hard for yourself for no reason. If you’re simply out trying to capture a moment, try it on auto for a bit – your camera may surprise you. Doing a portrait in a difficult lighting situation? Try putting it on aperture priority, going as wide as it will allow for that shallow depth of field and let the camera figure out the rest. It’s there to make your life a little easier when you need it. No shame in the auto game.

7. Read the Manual

Very few of us read our manuals. But you should definitely think about digging it out and learning something new about your gear. Put aside some time on a rainy day, or during a long, boring airplane ride. As dry as that writing is – and as many times as you’ve tried to understand what TTL or rear curtain means – really studying it might just lead to the idea you need right now.

8. Be Someone Else for a While

“Create your own voice!” You hear that alot in the photography world. And it’s super noble. On the other hand, there’s an incredible amount of inspiring photographers out there doing awesome work – why not just taste a bit of someone else’s style and see if it sparks something new in you? Truth is, you’ll never do exactly what someone else did – it’s too hard to control every single variable anyway. Use someone else’s genius as a starting point and then go be your own genius. Scientists work this way, why can’t photographers?

9. You’re in RAW, Right?

Just a quick reminder here to give yourself every bit of flexibility and detail available in your great camera by keeping it on RAW mode. RAW images allow more forgiving post work with more data and detail to make your image exactly the way you want. You can even compensate for a bad exposure or bring up some shadows.

10. Zen and the Art of Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO

Here’s what you need to know about the big three: aperture, shutter speed and ISO. Each one is designed to give you more light, with a payoff. The art of truly mastering the manual mode is understanding what each one of those elements takes away as it gives you more light.

Larger aperture gives you more light, but takes away the length of your depth of field (blurrier backgrounds). Slower shutter speeds give you more light, but can make your images blurry if either the camera isn’t still or the subject moves. And higher ISO will offer you more light, but will add noise to your image.

So, in becoming a master of manual, don’t think about what the controls give you, think about what they take away. Ommm.