Article by Dave Grierson
You can have hours of fun learning how to take professional pictures, it can be very rewarding as well. It seems everyone has a camera these days, taking “snapshots” everywhere, but only a small percentage of them are taking professional quality photographs. Knowledge of your equipment, learning to use light, experimenting, and composition, are topics that will be investigated. Now, to begin our foray into how to take professional pictures.
An extensive understanding of your camera is essential. There are multiple and varied settings on digital cameras today that were not possible on the old film cameras. A careful study of the manual that accompanies your camera will enable you to use the proper setting to manipulate the lighting, focus, and coloring of your images. Testing each setting after you read about it will increase your understanding of how versatile your digital camera can be.
A tripod will also help you take more professional photographs. Blurring, off angle shots and camera shake will be a thing of the past when using this piece of equipment. There will be times when a hand held camera is more desirable for a certain effect, or convenience, but generally a tripod will aid in getting professional results.
One major contributing factor to any photo is light. Using an non-diffused flash or any other form of direct harsh lighting is not recommended in most cases. Diffusing the flash or light source is desired when shooting still life or portraits. The use of diffused light will moderate the level of contrast and give a softer look to the shadows your subjects .
Covering your light source with waxed paper, or reflecting it with a white sheet or board, are easy ways to diffuse light. Flash umbrellas, and diffusing shields can be used as well, but they are expensive and require extra equipment to set them up. To enhance the quality of your studio photographs, try moving the diffused light source higher or lower, or changing the direction of it in relation to your subject.
As in any talent or skill, practice makes perfect. Experimentation, using digital equipment is much less costly and time consuming than the old film media. The whole picture taking process has been completely revolutionized by digital cameras. Being able to delete the photos that didn’t work allows you to experiment with the different settings, and exposures of a single subject in order to get just the right result. It is absolutely necessary to examine all of your photographs before deleting the bad ones, in order to learn how to take professional pictures.
Composing the photograph takes a good eye and a little know how. You can begin by drawing 3 imaginary lines horizontally, and 3 imaginary lines vertically in your viewfinder, creating 9 equal sized boxes. The main elements of your picture should be placed on the intersecting points of these lines for a well composed image. Photographs composed in this manner will be more interesting than if you just center your subject every time. Of course, rules are made to be broken, and after the “3 line rule” becomes second nature, you can experiment with different ways to break it.
I hope investigating the above points will help you in your quest of how to take professional pictures. And for goodness sake, never lose sight of the fun to be had in taking pictures, to improve not only the quality of your photos, but the quality of your life as well.
About the Author
Dave Grierson is an avid photographer who loves to play with his cameras learn more about taking professional photographs by clicking on the following link: http://digitalphotographysuccessreview.blogspot.com/
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Dave Grierson is an avid photographer who loves to play with his cameras
