The art of photography is a highly demanding field. While it’s a practice that’s open to all, not everyone has the skills to make it. Taking photos isn’t as simple as clicking the camera shutter and freezing a moment forever. It involves light manipulation, temperature adjustments, and choosing a subject that entices any viewer to stare.
If you want to take professional photos as a career or simply want to take snapshots as a hobby, knowing a bunch of tips and tricks can go a long way. Fortunately, at this time and age of technological developments, you can take stunning shots without spending too much on camera lenses and equipment. Today, all you need is a simple camera or your smartphone, a touch of passion for photography, and basic knowledge in taking photos.
A Guide on How to Take Better Pictures
Photo-taking is an elaborate process, but it shouldn’t intimidate you. While photography terms can feel complicated, they’re a lot easier to apply. Remember that photography is a form of art, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with it.
Want to learn how to take better pictures to be a professional, amateur, or freelance photographer? Here are professional photography tips you must keep in mind:
1. Find a Fantastic Subject
Your subject or focal point is the most integral aspect of photo-taking. If you want to learn how to take better pictures, you must also possess the ability to find an interesting subject. You must develop a keen eye to identify which part of an object should be the main interest in a photo.
Finding a focal point is a fundamental skill in taking photos. Once you find a subject, make sure not to fill the entire frame with it. Use the rule of thirds to make use of negative space. Apply finishing touches such as editing the brightness or cropping the photo to make the subject pop.
2. Make Use of Gridlines
Gridlines are basic essentials in learning how to take better pictures. Gridlines are a fantastic tool in maintaining the balance and composition of your images. These are best used to apply a fundamental photography principle called “rule of thirds”.
To use gridlines, find a subject and make sure that it falls along the lines or in the intersections. This enables you to capture a balanced image between the background and focal point. This is especially great for architecture photography, where you have to capture the length of a design.
3. Master the Use of Negative Space
The negative space is a positive factor in taking photos. To know how to take better pictures, you must also acknowledge that not everything needs to be in the frame. The negative space refers to the areas between your subject/s. You must know how to work your way around these negative spaces to produce stunning results.
If you want to learn how to take professional photos, understanding negative spaces is a great place to start. It ensures that your subject looks stronger and more appealing to an audience.
4. Play With Various Perspectives
Perfecting the process of photo-taking involves playing around with perspectives. A perspective makes the viewer feel as if they’re looking at a subject from a certain angle. For example, if you’re doing food photography from the bird’s eye view, the viewer would be looking down at the dish, creating an illusion of depth. You can also try another perspective to produce unique photos.
5. Focus on Symmetry
Symmetry is at the heart of knowing how to take better pictures. It relies on the aspects of balance, proportion, and harmony. Symmetry is simple to apply, but it’s also one of the most effective techniques in photo-taking.
Think of symmetry like this. Imagine taking a photo and slicing it into two. If each separate piece mirrors the other, you’ve achieved symmetry. Don’t forget to use gridlines to attain the perfect shot. This will also help your strike the balance in your image.
6. Leverage Good Lighting
We can’t emphasize this enough - lighting is everything. Good lighting captures brightness and generates shadows that highlight an image. Whether you’re using natural light, artificial light,or a DIY light box, it’s best to learn how to adjust them to get the best outcome.
Before diving into knowing how to take better pictures, learn how to leverage good lighting first. Remember to have enough light to show the subject but not too much that it oversaturates it. Another thing that influences the lighting in your photos is the location. Make sure to find a place where light peeks through so you won’t have to carry extra lighting gear.
7. Sharpen Your Photo Editing Skills
No matter how perfect your photo setup is, you can’t always produce outstanding images. Fortunately, there is plenty of photo-editing software you can use to edit your images.
After taking photos, make sure you know a couple of photoshop tips and tricks to manipulate your images. It doesn’t matter if you only know the basics. As long as you keep practicing, you’ll learn enough editing techniques to get to a better stage. Remember, knowing how to take better pictures won’t suffice. You must learn how to edit them as well.
8. Find Interesting Details
Take a deep look into your subject and find something that looks interesting. It can be a repeating pattern, a texture, a series of stitches or details that the human eye can’t capture. Once you find these details, try to give them the spotlight. Emphasize these details to make each image stand out.
If you spot intricate yet small details, you can try using the sharpen tool in photoshop or in any other photo editor you have. Once you know how to take professional photos, finding these details would become easier in the future.
Showing Your Photos to the World
Image taken from Strikingly user website
Take a look at the image above. Do you also want to exhibit your images on an online platform? If you want to achieve something similar, we have a solution right here for you.
Strikingly, one of the best free website builders out there today has the tools and features you need to show your photos to the world. After all, what’s the use in knowing how to take better pictures if no one is out there to see?
With Strikingly’s gallery feature, you'll have the power to make your pieces seen. You’ll have the chance to introduce your pieces to the world. Take a look at the images below to see how you can arrange your images with Strikingly.
Image taken from Strikingly user website
As you can see in the image above, you can place photos in different sizes together. You can also use white space to separate the images. Play with the arrangement as much as you please until you find the most appealing setup.
Image taken from Strikingly user website
If you’re into taking photos of people, or portrait photography, you can get inspiration from the image above. This gallery is also made using Strikingly.
Once you’ve learned how to take better pictures, you can begin uploading them to your own photography website. If you haven’t built a website before, don’t worry. Strikingly has all the functions you need to make web development faster and more convenient for beginners.
See the steps below to learn how you can upload your images:
1. Select a Photography Website Template
Image taken from Strikingly product
Strikingly offers a great selection of templates that you can use for your website. After creating your account and adding a new site, you'll be prompted to select a template. Choose any template you want, but for this example, we'll use the Sparks Photography template.
As you can see in the website editor displayed in the image above, you have various settings to play around with. After learning how to take better pictures, take the time to add appealing aspects to your photography website based on your preferences.
2. Add a Gallery Section
Image taken from Strikingly product
The gallery section would hold all the photographs you want to show. From the left-side menu, click "Add New Section'', then choose "Gallery". You'll see something similar to the image above. You can also change the layout if you prefer something else.
Remember to apply the techniques you've learned on how to take better pictures. At this point, you're probably done taking photos and want to upload them to your site. Follow the next step to learn how to add your images.
3. Uploading Pictures to Your Gallery
Image taken from Strikingly product
Once you're done with the photo-taking and post-editing process, you can now upload your photos to your gallery. You can upload an image from your computer or choose among the ones you've uploaded already. There's also a drag and drop feature in Strikingly, which you can use to easily add images.
Bonus tip: carefully select each photo and try various layouts. Through this, you can have an idea of how to arrange your images. You can keep similar images together or spread them out for balance. It all depends on what you want.
Learned enough about how to take better pictures as a hobby or profession? Once you've embraced the art of photography, opportunities would be limitless. With Strikingly, you can have a photography website that houses all your images. Create your Strikingly account today and unleash the talent within you.
