Tips for Taking Better Photos
Professional Advice to Improve Your Digital, Film and Video Images
Oct 20, 2007
Bring your adventure travel trip of a lifetime home with you in great photos and video. Here are ten top photo tips from a pro, to help you create great images that you can be proud to share with friends, and keep the memory of your trip alive.
These tips are from Michael Ventura. You might not recognize his name, but you've seen his photos on the covers of top travel magazines and the brochures you get from tourism bureaus.
Don't be afraid to get closer. Not always, but a lot times when you are too far away, there is a disconnect from you and your subject. Or, there is too much happening in the picture. In other words, a close-up can be a better image than a 'busy' wide shot where a lot of things are competing for the viewer's attention.
Morning and afternoon/evening light is usually the best. Professional photographers rarely shoot in the mid-day sun because the light is direct and harsh. Light is warmer and softer just after sunrise and just before sunset -- the pros call it 'golden light'. During mid-day, shoot indoors, such as museums, or in the shade. The exception, says Ventura, is tropical beaches, which are often best to photograph when the sun is high and the color of the water is most vibrant.
Use a polarizing filter. That will take the sheen off the water and saturate the blue sky and sea. A polarizer also works on an extremely cloudy day, when the light is flat. That's when the polarizer will have the opposite effect, and bring more contrast into your photos. Polarizers are usually circular, and you have to fiddle with them a bit by turning them to get just the effect you want. And, remember to switch to the cloudy setting on your digital camera.
Composition. Try not to have your subject in the dead center or a horizon line slicing through the exact middle of the frame. That makes for a boring, static picture. Instead, place the focal point of the image -- a person or a building -- just off from the center.
Be patient and kind to your people subjects. If you ask first, most people around the world are happy to be photographed, especially if you show them the image immediately in the digital camera. Smiles go a long way. Patience is also important for good light or the right elements to come into view.
Experiment with slow shutter speeds for action photos. Most of us shoot most of our pictures in 'automatic' mode, which puts everything into focus. But, sometimes, having a blurred subject conveys movement better then stopped action. Or, the subject in focus and the background blurry.
Avoid cliché sunset photos of the actual sunset. They usually have just a pretty sky instead of giving information about where you are. Instead, incorporate the sunset as one part of the photo but with an emphasis on something more vital about your destination.
Be aware of the whole picture. Too many pictures are spoiled by a bad background. If you meet someone with an interesting face don't start snapping with out thinking, "does the background compliment the foreground"? If not, you may need to use a wide aperature (f2.8 to f4), especially with longer lens, to throw the background out of focus and draw attention to the interesting face. Or, try to move the subject in front of a more appropriate or workable background. This is more easily done, of course, with family and friends than with strangers.
Don't always shoot at eye level. Shooting up or looking down can make a photo much more interesting and exciting. Get low when taking pictures of children and small animals.
An overcast sky is often great for portraits. If it is a harsh sunny day, shoot indoors or do your portraits in shade and make use of light bouncing off a wall, if possible. With digital cameras, use your shade setting in your white balance control
In digital (and who isn't now?), always shoot in the highest (largest) quality file your camera can produce. You can always reduce the file later, but you can't always make it bigger.
Be lucky! Have your camera with you and set for quick shooting. Things can happen and weather can change in an instant. Be ready for it, because those can be some of your best shots.
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