Photography 101: Five Tips To Get You Started

If you're learning photography, this article will give you five important tips to help take better pictures. With these five tips you can start using them right away so you can start seeing a difference in the quality of your pictures.

While you can't of course learn everything in one article about photography, this article provides 5 tips on the basics. Whether you have a point and shoot camera or are the proud owner of an SLR, there are a few basic concepts that once understood will get you on your way towards taking excellent photos. Here are five important and easy to use tips that you can put to use right away.

1) Resolve to Have Enough Resolution:

Yes, a low resolution setting saves space on your memory card, but it doesn't make for suitable prints. You can easily resize for a smaller picture, even in free programs like Picasa ("resize" is hidden there under "export"), but making a picture larger usually brings awful results. When you enlarge the photo, the pixels that make up the picture are spread thinner.

If you plan to print your pictures, choose medium or high resolution. Depending on your camera, 3 mega pixels should give you high quality 4x6 images and sometimes even a very nice 8x10. For excellent quality 11x14's go for 6 mega pixels.



2) Let There be Light (but Make it the Right Kind):

Natural lighting is almost always best so don't worry if you don't have a flash or any fancy equipment. If your only flash is the built-in one, that's all the more reason to opt for natural light. Built-in flashes can make subjects look flat. That is why professional photographers use an external flash and bounce light off photo umbrellas. There are inexpensive tricks you can do like wearing a white shirt or taping foil to the camera to bounce the light off the ceiling, but if you want an easy way to get professional quality photos without extra equipment it's best to go outdoors.

When taking pictures outdoors, consider the position of the sun. With the exception of sunrise and dawn, the lower the sun is in the sky the better. Noon brings the harshest shadows. Unless the sky is an important part of your picture, bright overcast produces the best light.



3) Compose a Perfect Picture:

Getting a fast snapshot of something without any thought mostly depends upon luck. But by learning how to compose a picture first, you have more creative control and you will end up with more photographs suitable for framing. The photos you take will look more like what you pictured when you clicked the shutter release.

There is a lot to learn about photo composition, but for starters, here is the number one rule. Fill the frame of the viewfinder. First, decide on what is the most important subject in your photo and then move close enough (or zoom-optical zoom is best) to fill the viewfinder with the subject. For example, if the subject is your grandmother watering her petunias then that's the subject not her entire yard. Many people make the mistake of losing their subjects in the background.



4) Steady Now:

It doesn't take much camera movement to create a blur, in fact most times, you'll never even notice the movement until you see the blurry picture. For sharp photographs, keep your elbows down, feet apart and hold the camera steady while pressing (not punching) the shutter release. Continue holding still until the camera's light has indicated it is done taking the photo. When you are taking a photo that needs a slower than usual shutter speed, like a fireworks display, use a tripod to steady the camera. You can also use other items as props to set your camera on as long as you have a remote shutter release. A good rule of thumb is to use a tripod for shutter speeds slower than 1/60.



5) Share Your Creations:

If your pictures are digital, use a photo editor to resize the copies of your photos (save originals first) down to the appropriate size for your website, email or picture frame. Use photo-printing paper that is compatible with your printer model. If you're using a film camera but want photos for email or a website, use a quality scanner or when dropping off film to be developed, request a CD. 



Frame your best photographs for hanging on your walls or displaying on a table. A framed photograph also makes a very welcome gift, especially when the subject is a portrait. Remember a portrait can be of a single person, family, multiple friends or a beloved pet...the list is endless, and again, these make lovely giftsArticle Submission, especially when framed nicely.



By using these 5 tips you'll help to expand your photography knowledge so you can contنشر الرسالةinue to take even better looking photographs.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Autumn Lockwood is a writer for Your Picture Frames.com. Your Picture Frames offers a lot of unique frames from floral decorative frames to frames that hold pictures floating in the frame. No matter what you want, we have the frame you want on our website.

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