Quick and Easy Tips to Better Photos (vol. 1)
I have been wanting to work on a series of blogs with some beginner tips for quite some time. I always told myself I would do it once I had some more material, but I have decided against it for two reasons. One- it is much easier to digest information if it is given in small portions and two- I want to share some tips that are on my mind at this moment (I tend to easily forget things) while they are still fresh.
All of these tips are things that I had to over come early in my photography, and cruising around on Flickr and Facebook I see that I was not the only one who overlooked these simple steps that can make your photos 100x better. So without further ado, lets get started.
1. Straight Horizons- a very common issue I see in inexperienced photographer’s photos are that their horizons are not straight. Even if the subject of your photo is a close-up or macro, you still need to make sure the horizon (or horizontal lines) in the background are straight. It adds so much more to the photo when you pay attention to this simple composition issue. This is one thing I didn’t ever really struggle with too much. Something in my head is just geared to notice geometric things like this, which is probably why I notice it so much. It is a subtle thing that makes a huge difference.
Notice the difference in the dunes along the green line. Although the sign is the focal point of the photo, the image to the left feels like it is falling over, while the well-balanced image to the right doesn’t give the viewer that uneasy feeling.
2. Get Low- When many people shoot, they do so standing perfectly erect. To get rid of any weird distortion and to give a much more unique vantage point, simply kneel down. You would be amazed at the difference it makes. Just grab your camera, take a shot of something while standing then take a shot of the same thing from a kneeling position. Check out the difference on your viewfinder. This is something that I have really begun to embrace. You’ll find me kneeling, sitting or laying on my stomach all over the place!
Notice how much more of an imposing POV is created from simple kneeling to shoot rather than standing. This is a very easy way to set your photos apart from others’ of the same subject.
3. A Minimalistic Approach, Embrace Negative Space- One of my favorite artistic techniques is to take the ‘Rule of Thirds’ to another level by using a minimalistic approach. This works out very well when taking shots of things like monuments, buildings, clock towers etc. Use negative space (area in the scene with not much of ‘viewing value’) to add to the focal point of the image. This can be anything from patterns or clouds in the sky to pavement or even the blurred background of the image. It is fun to experiment. This is a technique I often use for poster or sign designs in which I will need an area to place text later (see Jeep photo).
If you find these tips helpful, let me know! Likewise, if you have any suggestions do the same!
You can follow me on Twitter @Uprooted_Photos and on Facebook at facebook.com/uprootedphotographer
How Do I Do It? (A brief explanation)
Lately I’ve been finding that more and more people that I come in contact with have taken interest in my work and have been asking how I get the results I get with my photography. The short answer is with proper techniques in-camera, and a lot of work outside of the camera through post processing. I’ve decided to write this blog to explain the process I go through on most of my photos a little more completely.
The technique I use the most is HDR (High Dynamic Range). Before explaining how to achieve HDR through the camera and processing, I’ll explain a little about why HDR is so neat to me. Without getting too much into science and anatomy, I can simply say that no camera can see the range of colors the way your eye can. The human eye can see more f/stops in any given scene, and this gives it a wider range of lights and darks compared to your camera. That is why sometimes when you go through your pictures, they don’t seem nearly as vivid as you remember. To offset this problem, HDR photography was hatched.
I’ll use the photo I took at the Cedar Grove Cemetery in New Bern, NC as my example. Higher-end Digital SLRs (and I think some point and shoots are coming out with this feature as well) have what is called auto-bracketing built in. Depending on your model, you can set the bracketing to do 3, 5 or 7 exposures of different steps continuously of a scene. I always shoot 3 exposures (usually -2, 0, +2). Here are the 3 original shots. In a nutshell, you will be smashing these three photos together through post processing bringing out the details of each image to create a “super photo.”
The next step, after transferring the shots to my computer, is to merge the three different exposures into one image. This will give us a wide range of whites and blacks- a high dynamic range. There are several ways of doing this. I prefer to use Photomatix Pro. After they are merged I go through a battery of other steps including tone mapping, masking and noise reduction. I have a very loose workflow when it comes to post processing. The only thing set in stone is Photomatix first to merge the files and tone map, and then Photoshop to further edit.
After all of this editing, the end result can be either subtle or dramatic. This particular image leaned toward the dramatic.
There are a lot of good, helpful people out there in the HDR community who do some great work as well. Just go to Flickr.com and do a quick search and you will see! Thanks for taking the time to read the post, it ended up being a lot more wordy than I planned.
As always, I invite you to join me at www.facebook.com/uprootedphotographer. It’s a great place to communicate and share my photos with you.
