Better photos with Three Questions
Written by: Photography use to be expensive. Buying film and getting prints added up. You would take a roll of film and not know if the pictures came out or not. Dark exposures, blurry images, and the occasional finger blocking part of the view. Once the digital revolution made its way into photography it allowed people to pick and choose what images you wanted to print, if you wanted to print them at all.
Often digital images just stay that way, digital. They get used in slideshows and posted online. Not only has the cost of printing gone down, but the cameras have become smaller and cheaper. Now everyone seems to have a camera.
Since there are many more novices taking photos, I thought I could share a few tips that will help increase your chances of taking a good or great photo. Here are three questions you should ask yourself before you hit the shutter:
What is your subject?
Cinderella's Castle - Disney World
Well? What is your subject? I know this seems like an easy question, and it is, but often people take a photo by pointing is at something and they don’t really know what the subject of the photo is.
Before you hit that shutter, look and the screen or through your viewfinder and decide what it is that you want to take a picture of. Is it a landscape? Is it a person?
In the example of Cinderella’s Castle (right), The castle at night is the subject. Once I know that, I can ask myself the next question.
How can you emphasize your subject?
What will make your subject more prominent? One way to do this is to fill the frame of the photo with the subject. You can do this by moving closer or by zooming in. The larger the subject is in the frame, the more it stands out. Centering your subject in the frame is the first good way for beginners to emphasize a subject.
In the case of the castle photo, the subject (the castle) is emphasized by being centered, and because it is nice and bright. It’s natural when looking at a photo to look at the brightest part first. And since the castle is the brightest thing in the photo, you look directly at it.
A common error people make
Correct - Fill the Frame
Wrong - Too far Away
How many photos have you seen where someone went on vacation and came back with tons of photo of them standing in front of a landmark, where they are very small and the landmark is far away? I hate seeing these shots. MOVE CLOSER. Ok, now that you moved closer. Do it again. One more time. That’s better.
You shouldn’t be more that 7-10 feet away from the people you are taking a photo of. You don’t need their entire body in the shot, just from the chest up. That’s all. This way you can see the people in the shot. And if you want the landmark, just till the camera, or move a step to the left or right, and you can a tighter shot.
How can you simplify your subject?
So once you decided what your subject is, and you’ve emphasized it, now it’s time to simplify it. That means get rid of the clutter and remove unsightly backgrounds or foregrounds. It also means don’t have the lamp post sticking directly behind your subject so it looks like it is coming out of their head.
If it’s clutter, just remove it from the shot. An example of this would be if you take a couples shot while out to a nice dinner. Usually the table is cluttered with extra plates and glasses, extra food dishes, center-pieces, condiments, etc. Remove some of these items. If the plate isn’t a sloppy mess, you can leave it. A glass or two is fine and the silverware if it is clean and laying nicely. Remove the rest.
Sometimes you can’t remove an object. Take the lamp post for example. You’re not going to be able to move that. In a case like that, move yourself. Step to the side, change your angle, or move closer. Usually by moving yourself you can eliminate the distracting object by moving it out of frame.
Conclusion
Next time you go to take a picture, try asking yourself these three questions. I guarantee that by doing this you will increase the number of good photos you take. And the more you do it, the faster you will get at recognizing what makes a good photo versus a bad photo.
