Post by Snappersforum on Jan 24, 2015 21:24:05 GMT
7 photography tips you’ve never heard before
by Marcus Hawkins January 19, 2015 6 Comments
If you’re after photography tips, then Digital Camera World has everything you need. As you know, we’ve built up an extensive archive of photography techniques and Photoshop tutorials, fuelled by some of the world’s best photography magazines.
We also publish fresh photography advice daily: if this is your first visit, check out Better photo tips: 60 of the most amazing, surprising, incredible bits of photography advice you’ll ever read for starters.
But what happens when you’ve topped up on photo tips and are looking for some advice that you may never have heard before? We can help there, too. While there is, of course, a chance you may have heard one of the tips below, you won’t have heard them in quite the same way before…
7 photography tips you've never heard before: familiar holding you back
Tip 01: Get rid of your baggage
If you find yourself regularly driving past a scenic view and saying to yourself ‘that would make a great picture – I must do that one day’, then stop and take the shot. Otherwise you can end up spending years driving past the same spot saying exactly the same thing.
Now here’s the thing: you might find that the potential you’ve perceived in the scene doesn’t work out.
Things look very different through the window of a car than they do through a camera viewfinder. You may not be able to get quite the angle you’re looking for, or there could be too many distractions or overlapping elements.
Sometimes it’s only once you see these things through a camera lens that you can really move on.
Tip 02: You’ll take better photos on Sunday than you do on Saturday
If you only use your camera at weekends, then the chances are that you’ll make more mistakes on the first day because you’re coming at it ‘cold’.
Pick up your camera every day – you don’t have to take a picture (unless you’re doing a 365 photo project, of course). Instead, work on developing your muscle memory for the direction you need to rotate a lens’s zoom ring to make a subject smaller or larger in the frame, or which way to turn the camera dial to set a larger or smaller aperture.
The more instinctive the technical side of photography becomes, the more you can focus on composition.
Tip 03: Never take photographs on an empty stomach
We can come up with a stream of excuses for why we missed a shot, but we try not to make hunger one of them!
The fact is that the longer you can stay out with your camera, the more you increase your chances of bagging a brilliant shot.
Take wildlife photography: when everyone else is packing up and heading for dinner, that’s the time when an animal always does something interesting. One of the classic landscape photography tips is to wait until sunset and twilight as that’s when the best light and richer colours can be had. But it’s hard to resist a rumbling stomach’s plea to go and find something to fill it and come back another day…
Tip 04: ‘Murder your darlings’
This famous piece of advice for writers is equally relevant to photographers, and there’s a easily digestible definition over at Publication Coach.
The concept is that you should try to be more objective with the work you’re creating. Ditch the flowery stuff – the aspects that draw attention to the process rather than the content.
Obviously there are some types of photography where it’s all about the ‘darlings’ – when a technique you’ve used becomes part of the photo’s narrative. But will viewer’s roll their eyes at yet another of your images which has the ‘Instagram filter’ applied? Does working up all of your portraits with an HDR effect really say anything about more about the person being photographed, other than ‘they’re craggy, aren’t they?’
Developing a style is one thing, but try to ask yourself why you’re creating a look rather than how.
Tip 05: Delete 50 photos
How many near-misses or duplicates do you have stored on your hard drive? If you’re anything like us, it’ll be far too many.
Set yourself a target of deleting a chunk of your photo collection. We’re saying 50 images, but you could go for 30 or 100 – whatever number seems sensible in light of the size of your archive.
Not only does it save you storage space, but giving your photo collection a health check can be liberating.
Tip 06: Get opinions on your portfolio from ’non-photographers’
Posting images and receiving critiques on the best photo sharing websites is a good thing. But getting the opinion of people who aren’t into photography in quite the same way can be just as informative.
While their comments might not offer the technical insight or have the gravitas of someone who has taken pictures that you admire, their gut reactions to your images can be revealing.
Obviously the only person you’ve really got to please with your photography is you, and the creative recipe for your photos may not be to everyone’s taste – in the same way that opinions differ on music, books and paintings. But frank opinions can help you to see your work in new ways.
Tip 07: Listen to music while you take (and edit) photos
The more you expose yourself to different sources of art, the more creative your photos are likely to become. As Ansel Adams famously said, “You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.”
Portrait photographers often use background music when shooting in the studio to make the model feel more at ease. But try taking music with you when you’re shooting outdoors. Blocking out distractions with headphones can help you totally focus on the image.
Choose music that reflects the mood you’re trying to create: while classical music or sweeping film soundtracks can inspire during landscape photography, you might be better off cracking into some metalcore to keep you pumped during those late-night photo editing sessions…
by Marcus Hawkins January 19, 2015 6 Comments
If you’re after photography tips, then Digital Camera World has everything you need. As you know, we’ve built up an extensive archive of photography techniques and Photoshop tutorials, fuelled by some of the world’s best photography magazines.
We also publish fresh photography advice daily: if this is your first visit, check out Better photo tips: 60 of the most amazing, surprising, incredible bits of photography advice you’ll ever read for starters.
But what happens when you’ve topped up on photo tips and are looking for some advice that you may never have heard before? We can help there, too. While there is, of course, a chance you may have heard one of the tips below, you won’t have heard them in quite the same way before…
7 photography tips you've never heard before: familiar holding you back
Tip 01: Get rid of your baggage
If you find yourself regularly driving past a scenic view and saying to yourself ‘that would make a great picture – I must do that one day’, then stop and take the shot. Otherwise you can end up spending years driving past the same spot saying exactly the same thing.
Now here’s the thing: you might find that the potential you’ve perceived in the scene doesn’t work out.
Things look very different through the window of a car than they do through a camera viewfinder. You may not be able to get quite the angle you’re looking for, or there could be too many distractions or overlapping elements.
Sometimes it’s only once you see these things through a camera lens that you can really move on.
Tip 02: You’ll take better photos on Sunday than you do on Saturday
If you only use your camera at weekends, then the chances are that you’ll make more mistakes on the first day because you’re coming at it ‘cold’.
Pick up your camera every day – you don’t have to take a picture (unless you’re doing a 365 photo project, of course). Instead, work on developing your muscle memory for the direction you need to rotate a lens’s zoom ring to make a subject smaller or larger in the frame, or which way to turn the camera dial to set a larger or smaller aperture.
The more instinctive the technical side of photography becomes, the more you can focus on composition.
Tip 03: Never take photographs on an empty stomach
We can come up with a stream of excuses for why we missed a shot, but we try not to make hunger one of them!
The fact is that the longer you can stay out with your camera, the more you increase your chances of bagging a brilliant shot.
Take wildlife photography: when everyone else is packing up and heading for dinner, that’s the time when an animal always does something interesting. One of the classic landscape photography tips is to wait until sunset and twilight as that’s when the best light and richer colours can be had. But it’s hard to resist a rumbling stomach’s plea to go and find something to fill it and come back another day…
Tip 04: ‘Murder your darlings’
This famous piece of advice for writers is equally relevant to photographers, and there’s a easily digestible definition over at Publication Coach.
The concept is that you should try to be more objective with the work you’re creating. Ditch the flowery stuff – the aspects that draw attention to the process rather than the content.
Obviously there are some types of photography where it’s all about the ‘darlings’ – when a technique you’ve used becomes part of the photo’s narrative. But will viewer’s roll their eyes at yet another of your images which has the ‘Instagram filter’ applied? Does working up all of your portraits with an HDR effect really say anything about more about the person being photographed, other than ‘they’re craggy, aren’t they?’
Developing a style is one thing, but try to ask yourself why you’re creating a look rather than how.
Tip 05: Delete 50 photos
How many near-misses or duplicates do you have stored on your hard drive? If you’re anything like us, it’ll be far too many.
Set yourself a target of deleting a chunk of your photo collection. We’re saying 50 images, but you could go for 30 or 100 – whatever number seems sensible in light of the size of your archive.
Not only does it save you storage space, but giving your photo collection a health check can be liberating.
Tip 06: Get opinions on your portfolio from ’non-photographers’
Posting images and receiving critiques on the best photo sharing websites is a good thing. But getting the opinion of people who aren’t into photography in quite the same way can be just as informative.
While their comments might not offer the technical insight or have the gravitas of someone who has taken pictures that you admire, their gut reactions to your images can be revealing.
Obviously the only person you’ve really got to please with your photography is you, and the creative recipe for your photos may not be to everyone’s taste – in the same way that opinions differ on music, books and paintings. But frank opinions can help you to see your work in new ways.
Tip 07: Listen to music while you take (and edit) photos
The more you expose yourself to different sources of art, the more creative your photos are likely to become. As Ansel Adams famously said, “You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.”
Portrait photographers often use background music when shooting in the studio to make the model feel more at ease. But try taking music with you when you’re shooting outdoors. Blocking out distractions with headphones can help you totally focus on the image.
Choose music that reflects the mood you’re trying to create: while classical music or sweeping film soundtracks can inspire during landscape photography, you might be better off cracking into some metalcore to keep you pumped during those late-night photo editing sessions…