New Photographer Tips
Simple Photography Hints
Today I want to cover 3 tips that will make you a better overall photographer.
First off, just because you do not have the best gear doesn’t mean you can’t take good photos. Avoid having Gear Envy of the photographers around you. There will always be someone with a nicer camera or a more expensive lens. Practice with the gear you have as it will make you better for the day that you acquire that 600mm or that Sony A1.
Second, avoid shooting in Auto, my biggest recommendation is learning about the Exposure Triangle. What I did to start learning, set my ISO to the lowest it would go – on my Rebel T7i the lowest was 100ISO from there when I was doing pictures I would play with my Aperture and Shutter Speed. Let’s quickly discuss these 3 items. Aperture is going to change depth of field. Depending on the subject, portraits for example: If you are doing portraits of a single person, bring your aperture down as low as possible. (I try and stay near 2.8 if you go any lower you will notice that parts of your subject will blur.) Doing so, will slightly blur your background and will help remove some of the possible distraction. ISO explained simply, will tell the sensor of your camera to bring in more light or less light. The issue I have with ISO to help correct my exposure, when you start to get too high on the ISO slider you start to introduce noise. That is why I recommend starting with keeping a static setting on your ISO at the lowest possible number. Lastly, Shutter Speed as it stands with the other two items, the settings used for Shutter Speed, will depend on your subject if you are shooting sports, you will want a fast shutter speed to freeze the action, you can slow the shutter speed down slightly and play with motion blur which could introduce a cool effect to your picture. Now if you’re shooting a still subject you can use shutter speed to correct your exposure, keeping the noise low and the desired bokeh.
Lastly, Look at other photographers work, use that as inspiration. Note down features of some of your favorite photos and start trying to implement those features and traits into work of your own. I do this a lot with poses, I will google poses for what subject I may be doing portraits for, when I find poses I like I will screenshot those poses and do my best to work with my subject to create the same look. Always make sure they are comfortable with the pose as it will make it more enjoyment for everyone.
