Week Three - Tip For Better Photos

I hope everyone is learning something from these weekly tips. I know that the last two week's tips were kind of boring, but they really are a necessary evil in taking better photos. For the next few weeks I will cover different aspects of photographic compisition. These range from the really obvious (but often over looked) tip to something that that takes a little more thought to remember.

Here we go, here are you first three compisition tips:

1) Change Your Vantage Point

One of the most effective ways to make your images more interesting to the eye is to change the angle that you’re shooting from. This is one place that you get to be darning. Take your photo from an unusual angle. Get down on the ground and look up, get on a chair and look down, etc. The point is, instead of doing the obvious, look at your subject from all sorts of views and find one that stands out. Change your position to emphasize or exaggerate how big or small your subject is. Crouch down and shoot up at someone and that person towers over you. Shoot down on your pet and it seems so comically small. You can also move your camera right or left only a few feet to change the composition dramatically.

This is a photo that my son Ian took.  This is a great example of taking a photo at a really unusual angle.  By getting down on the ground and looking up at the tulips, he has totally changed the way these flowers normally look.  They now look like giant flowers.  Also by chosing this angle, he has given these tulips a very beautiful background vs. the normal backgrouds of other flowers and grass.

2) Hold your camera at the subject's eye level.

This one is really important when photographing children and animals. There is always an exception to the rule, but generally speaking it looks better when you get down on their level with them.

3) Watch out for what is in the background.

Before taking that perfect shot, check to be sure there are no distracing clutter or objects sticking out of your subjects head (trees, plants, poles, ect.). A plain background or one that has been blurred to become very soft is much less distracting and will put more emphasis on the subject. You can see a great example of this in the two images below. Although the first portrait is very nice, there are the distracting trees in the background sticking out of the little guys head. In the second portrait, just by moving over a little bit I was able to make a HUGE differrence in the outcome by getting rid of the background distraction.

So now it is your time to try. Let's see what you can do. Shall I make a game of it? The first person to email me their photos (to post on the Blog as inspiration to others) using these three tips, as well as the tips from the last two weeks, will win a FREE MEMBERSHIP into our Club Indigo portrait program. This is a $250 value, with a life time of great discounts and even a few free sessions.

Good Luck and Happy Shooting!