Learn about our Three Tips for Great Photographs
Tip one: Know your subject
Although it might be an obvious step, a lot of people don’t seem to think about this before taking photos. You should always determine what the subject of the photo is going to be prior to taking it. If you don’t, you end up taking pictures of random things and situations, and they don’t always look so good. You should also try to make the picture you capture focus on the subject.
Sometimes the picture you capture doesn’t express what you saw in the viewfinder. Let’s say you took a picture of Billy playing in the front yard. When you get the prints back and get ready for photo scanning, you still see Billy there, but you also see the bumper of your car, half a bush, a trashcan, and the neighbor’s broken gate. This is all a part of knowing what your subject is. The viewer of your image should not struggle to figure out exactly what the photo is supposed to be of.
Tip two: Draw attention to your subject
Now that we have established the subject of the photo, it’s time to draw attention to your subject. The easiest way to do this is to fill the frame with your subject. This technique obviously draws attention to your subject, because it’s the only one in the photo! The neat thing is that this trick will work with any camera at any time. Just fill up the viewfinder and snap away. So remember to draw attention to your subject whenever you look in the viewfinder. You can even ask yourself: “Does the image I see draw attention to my subject?” and ask, “Do I see anything in the frame that might distract the eye of the viewer from my subject?”
Tip three: Simplify your image
Now that the first two steps have been applied, it’s now time for the third, and sometimes most effective tip. You want to keep your images simple, especially if focusing on a single subject. Before taking the photo, look through the viewfinder and look for any objects that might be distracting or might draw attention away from the subject. This mostly applies to objects along the edges of the frame that might lead viewers eyes away from the subject. If you notice something, get rid of it! This can be done by moving the object out of the range of view. If it’s not movable, try moving your camera! Create different angles and try different areas to get that beautiful shot. If those two tricks don’t work out, then you could always try to move your subject.
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