Take Better Photos - A Series of Tips For Aspiring Digital Photogs (Part 1)

Whether you're using your cellphone's built in camera, a portable point & shoot, or a high end SLR, if you're just getting into photography, following these simple tips will help improve your images (and your pride in them) exponentially. Just keep this list in mind, if you don't already know any of these rapid-fire tips, and you'll be earning the big bucks on #photography in no time!

1) Set your resolution to the maximum your device can record

• Turn off compression and use RAW if it's an option
• Flash storage is cheap. I mean cheeeeeap so don't be stingy with it!
• Your imager was designed to take photos at the maximal possible resolution, by setting it to use a smaller image-size, you're wasting the efforts of hard-working engineers!

(What is this photo supposed to be? Maybe we'd know if they hadn't used such a low resolution!)

2) Avoid blurriness - specifically through camera shake

• If available, use a tripod or monopod
• If not, place your camera on a hard surface and hold it down with one hand while taking a photo
• Turn on image stabilization
• Set a maximum shutter-speed, i.e., exposure time, if possible, such as 1/30th of a second (more on this in a follow up post)
• Use a higher ISO if necessary (though this will add graininess and loss of depth)
  • Newer high end cameras are good at high ISO low noise images though. Isn't technological advancement swell?

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/deargdoom57/6322890109
(Okay, it actually works for this photo, but we can't all spin our shaky-hands into decent photos with god-tier camera control)

3) Always use the flash - even in broad daylight

• This tip is more of my personal opinion than a hard rule, though
• I plan to devote a whole post to using flash, but this article assumes you are just using your device's built-in "fill-flash"
• Some may argue that using flash can decrease the amount of depth to a photo, but I prefer a flatter photo to an underexposed face, in the case of a portrait where that's the whole point!

(Again, this isn't a particularly bad photo, but I don't personally like the shadow over a large portion of the subject's face)

4) As a follow-up, make sure the sun isn't in the frame!

• It will completely wash out your subject, even in the presence of bright flash
• This rule also applies to artificial light sources, and extremely bright reflections

(This is more of an intended lens-flare effect than a bad sun-framing-joby, but still I personally dislike it and feel it illustrates my point)


And that's it! Now you're ready to go out there and take photos people won't have to look at with patronizing disapproval. If there's interest, I plan to extend this series with tips on composition, manual photography settings, how to use more advanced equipment (with a focus on external flashes), and how to create cool effects (with the camera directly, and through post-processing), and whatever else strikes my fancy.

Disclaimer: This is an original SteemIt post. All photos were provided either with no attribution necessary, or attribution is given beneath the picture.

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