How To Succeed In Photography Without Really Trying

If you're like most people, you probably own a camera, and know more or less how to use it. However, you might be wishing there was some way you could take your picture taking to the next level. Something to help make your next set of vacation photos stand out from the crowd a bit. However, you may have picked up a book on photography and been a little daunted. F-stops? Aperture? Medium gray, depth of field, circle of confusion? What is all this stuff, and how will it make my pictures better?

Well, I have good news for you. If you understand all the terminology above, good for you. However, if you don't really feel like learning a bunch of technical details, thats OK too. Fortunately, all this tech talk can be boiled down into a few practical tips that will greatly improve your picture taking. Learning the details is always great, and I encourage you to do so if you're interested, but just learning the "tricks" and practicing will get you 80% of the way there with much less effort. Sounds like a good deal to me.

In the following sections, we will discuss such basics as your equipment, some composition tips and how to make sure you're using your automatic features to their fullest. We'll also discuss how most people go wrong using their flash, and some simple tips to help fix them. To tie things together, I'll give a list of short, practical tips you can start using right away to get some great pictures. Read on, and forever be regarded as the "photographer" by your friends.

Many people think that their cameras automatic mode is just that: completely automatic. And it is, but you can help give it helpful nudges in the right direction. The follow section will explain some basics of what your automatic mode its trying to do, and how you can help it make the right decisions.

Photography is all about the the light. The light makes your picture, so if you can control the light, you control the image. All the technical talk of f-stops, aperture shutter speed is just a way for describing quantitatively how much light we're letting into the camera. To take your highest quality pictures, you really need to be able to control the light.

Fortunately for you, your camera has an automatic light meter that determines how much light needs to enter the camera. This helps automatically set the aperture (how wide the camera opens when you take a picture), and the shutter speed (how long it stays open when taking the photo). To let more light in, the camera either opens the aperture wider, or leaves the shutter open for longer. If less light is need, the aperture is made narrower, or the shutter is open for a shorter time.

If the camera takes care of all these details, why am I telling you all this? As it turns out, even an automatic camera can use a little help from time to time. To understand this, lets talk a bit about how the light meter works. In order to decide how much light is needed, the sensor looks at the scene in front of it, calculates the brightness, and sets up the camera. However, it makes one bad assumption: the world is a medium shade of gray. Now, this works great much of the time, because the average scene is about this tone. However, when faced with a different situation, such as a snowy field, the camera will guess wrong and make the scene too dark. Conversely, if the scene is very dark in tone, like a stretch of black pavement, it will make the scene too light.

How can we help the camera make the right choice, without descending into a mess of technical guidelines? There is a simple way to help the camera get the right answer that doesn't require any use of the manual mode on your camera. First, though, you need to understand that most camera's will generally use the center part of the image to determine both the focus and the exposure (that is, the amount of light). Also, you should understand that when you hold your camera's button down halfway, the camera "primes" itself. That is, it determines it focus and exposure. Now, here's the thing to realize: just because you've primed the camera pointing in one direction doesn't mean you can't move the camera, still holding the button down, and re frame the picture.

This is a powerful concept. Say you're trying to take a picture of your kid in the middle of a snowy field. Because the field is lighter than the camera expects, it will try to make the scene too dark. To fix this, though, simply center the camera on something about the same distance away from the focus of your picture that isn't very bright or very dark, and press the shutter down half way. This will get the camera to make the right exposure. Then, still holding the button down, you can move the camera back to the way you want it, and take the now properly exposed picture. This can work in any weird lighting situation. Simple prime your camera by pointing it at the most "normal" looking area, and then recompose for your whole scene. Just doing a simple thing like this will do wonders for your photos.

This same principle also applies to focus, and gets a lot of people in trouble. Say you're take a picture some action happening just beyond a tree. If you prime your camera with the center pointed at the tree, it will be focused for that distance, and make your far away subject look blurry. Always make sure that you center the area that you want to be in focus in your viewfinder before priming. You can then move the camera over to recompose in the manner that you prefer. A lot of people get this wrong, and it leads to much frustration with their photos, which are inexplicably blurry. The autofocus will always focus on whatever you tell it to, so make sure you telling it the right thing by centering it on your area of interest.

The whole "prime and re-frame" concept, once mastered, will do wonders for the basic technical quality of your pictures. If you have a digital camera, try experimenting with this feature, and note how your choice of "prime points" affects the nature of your pictures. Again, if you prime centered on an object at a different distance than your subject, you run the risk of blurring. If you're centered on something that is really light or really dark, the light meter will become confused. By giving these automatic systems a gentle nudge in the right direction, you can really make your photos look a lot sharper.

Most cameras these days come with built in flashes, which can be very handy. However, these flashes are often wildly misused. In this section, I want to tell you how you can use the flash to your advantage, as well as when you shouldn't be using a flash. I'll also give you a few tips on how to avoid that harsh "flash lit" look in certain situations.

First of all, realize that the flash your camera comes with is pretty weak, to put it mildly. A flash works by sending light out, which reflects off the objects and illuminates them for the camera. Simple enough, but with a cheap flash, realize that this light doesn't get projected very far out. If the light doesn't get to your object of interest, the flash is doing you absolutely no good at all. This is why I always laugh when I see the huge bursts of flashes go off during the kickoff of a football game. Those little flashes aren't anywhere near powerful enough to illuminate the field of play. All they'll do is help you see the giuy in front of you's head more clearly in the photo. Don't expect miracles, and don't use your flash to try to take pictures of dark object that are any more than 8 feet or so in front of you, because it won't do you much good.

Another thing that many people don't know about their flash is that it can be used for other situation than just lighting up a dark picture. By using a flash during the day, unsightly shadows can be filled in, giving this use of the flash the name "fill flash." These shadows are very noticeable in the middle of the day, and will make the faces of your subject look quite harsh and ill defined. However, if you just turn on your flash, these shadows will be replaced by nice, even lighting that will greatly improve the quality of the picture. Give it a try sometime, you might just find you like the results.

One of the worst things about using a flash is the harsh look they can give to a scene. This is particularly evident when photographing people. Unfortunately, there often isn't much you can do with this when you're using a built in flash. However, if your camera features a swiveling flash of some sort, then you can do what is called "bounce flash." Simple swivel your flash upwards so that the flash strobe will "bounce" off the ceiling, shedding a more pleasing, diffuse light on your subjects. A great technique to have in your bag.

Overall, the flash is a great thing to have, but one that can be a little trick to get good results with, especially on compact cameras. Just know how your flash works, and what its limitations are, and you'll be able to do OK most of the time.

So, I hope some of this has given you an idea of ways you can improve your photography skills a little bit by taking into mind some simple factors. Remember that photography is just like anything: the more you practice, the better you get at it. So go out there, take some pictures, and start creating art, not just snapshots!