How To Make Your Photos Look Better On A Camera

1. Shoot every day Like any skill, the more you practise it, the improve yous can get. The best camera you lot have is the 1 in your hand, then if you aren't out with your full DSLR kit, don't exist afraid to take corking photos with your prison cell telephone camera or a point-and-shoot. Photography is photography, make pictures with a camera. Whatever camera.

2. Ever have your camera near Pull upwards a chair and I tin depict two amazing scenes that have been indelibly embedded in my heed. Unfortunately, for the first, my camera was cleaved (I was at sea, far from a camera store). For the 2nd, it was out of reach (I was flight). I have considered learning to draw or paint so I tin brand a "picture" of these two moments. The moral of these stories: have a camera inside reach. Yous never know what volition happen or what you will see.

3. Read your manual Camera manuals aren't engaging reading, but they do tell you a lot virtually how to use your photographic camera. Spend a night or two with your transmission and get intimate with your photographic camera. This will assist you every time you photograph. Most manuals are now bachelor electronically, then know where to detect it, or save it on your mobile device for reference in the field.

4. Bank check your settings / know your gear I accept often been tempted to put the post-obit notation on a sticker and braze information technology to my LCD screen: "Check your ISO, dummy." If I had a nickel for each fourth dimension I went out in the sunlight with my ISO at 800 or higher after shooting the previous evening in a dark restaurant, I would own a newer camera. Know what your settings are and how to change them quickly.

5. Alter viewpoint / bending We run into the world from middle level, and most people'southward eyes are, more often than not, at roughly the aforementioned height. Should your photographs constantly record the globe from the same altitude as your eyes? You will be amazed at how shooting from your knees, or a high basis, volition modify your prototype. Watch a documentary picture almost a documentary photographer and see how they move and silently wonder how many pairs of pants they wear out by constantly kneeling to shoot from low angles.

6. Know your meter Know your camera'southward metering modes and use them to your advantage. When y'all frame an image, see the light then meter for how you want your scene to exist exposed. Is the lighting flat? Is a ray of light illuminating your subject? Practise y'all want the background to melt into darkness? Your photographic camera will help you accomplish your goal; you lot only take to tell it how to exercise it. Exercise metering and setting exposure.

7. Know your shooting/exposure modes Similar to the last tip, your camera is smart, just information technology needs help from you from time to time. Some will tell you to always shoot manual. I disagree. Know how to shoot manual, but also know when other shooting/exposure modes will be advantageous for your particular photographic goal(s).

viii. Know your focus modes If you lot apply autofocus, and you probable practice, the camera's autofocus is either going to brand the picture or ruin information technology. Know what the autofocus modes do and how to adjust focus if the camera suddenly decides it thinks it knows improve than y'all what part of the frame y'all desire in focus.

9. Study photos—but not too much Study the photographs of others. What do you like? What do you dislike? What would yous meliorate? Is it perfect? Why, then, is information technology perfect? Look. Enjoy. Recollect. Soak it in. But, don't forget to leave and make your ain images!

ten. Read photo books Books and websites take helpful tips (I hope this counts). But, not all are created equal. Find writers who you connect with through their writing and find writers who give good advice. I am a large fan of "bones photography" books and, to this day, even with a Masters degree in the topic, I populate my bookshelf with inspirational books written for beginner photographers.

eleven. Learn / Workshops The only substitute for learning through reading (or watching videos) is to make images yourself. Take a class. Attend a workshop. Like to books and websites, these are non all created equal, simply, the i thing they should do is immerse you in photography for a nighttime or a weekend, or more. Being immersed in the art and arts and crafts is every bit important as anything else.

12. Use your histogram In digital photography, the histogram is the best way to evaluate your exposure for accurateness. The LCD screen can be misleading. Knowing how to read your histogram might be the departure between thinking you have a dandy photo and truly having a slap-up photo.

thirteen. Shoot raw, highest-resolution JPEG, or film Shooting raw gives you the all-time operation from your sensor. That is a fact. However, raw shooting isn't practical for every photographer (or camera). So, if you aren't going to shoot raw , shoot the highest-resolution JPEG that your camera allows. This manner, fifty-fifty if y'all think you are only taking snapshots, you will have the ability to make a large print if you find that yous captured an epitome you really like. Or, forget the digital raw vs. JPEG fence and shoot picture show. Case closed!

14. Compose meticulously At that place is a nature/nurture argument well-nigh composition. All the same, study the "rules" and observe composition in other images to assistance you "experience" what works best. Then, try to use that knowledge to your advantage. Exist deliberate about your composition, if time allows.

fifteen. Symmetry Along the same lines, if y'all are going for symmetry, make sure you nail it. A few inches in 1 direction tin can upset the paradigm'southward symmetry, and your audience (and you) will know you were going for symmetry and missed. Photography tin can be a game of inches.

16. Pay attention to the frame edges The epitome is more than the subject (usually). Scrutinize the corners and the sides and top and bottom of your frame. Is everything working together well, or is something completely out of place? Tin you adapt to remove the "dissonance" of a busy scene? Look at the whole so the whole does not detract from your subject.

17. Pay attention to the groundwork Evaluate your scene, specially in portraiture. Is that a tree growing out of the subject area'south head, or merely a funky new hat? Isolate your subjects from the background by adjusting depth of field, moving the camera, or moving the subject—unless the subject is the background.

eighteen. Go closer Robert Capa famously said, "If your pictures aren't skilful enough, you lot aren't close enough." He was 100% right. Fill your frame with the subject, if you can. This is one of the nigh difficult things to do in photography, as we sometimes worry about existence invasive to a stranger, or lazily attain for a telephoto lens to "cheat" and pretend we got close. Get closer and see your imagery improve.

19. Slow down Of course, there are times when you need a quick draw, but there is something to be said for planning and being deliberate. Remember about the shot. Visualize the results and calculate what y'all need to exercise to effort to achieve it. Put your program into action. Wait for elements to come together, if needed, and so make a photograph.

xx. Utilise a tripod Nothing slows yous down like a tripod. This is a good thing. Did you only cakewalk over #19? The tripod won't permit you do that. Also, as an added bonus, the tripod will concord your camera steady and help you go a sharper image!

21. Practice skilful technique The way y'all concord your camera tin brand a big divergence. The style you lot stand up while shooting tin make a big difference. The style you breathe when you release the shutter can make a large deviation. It all adds up and can make or interruption your photograph. Learn and practice these fundamentals.

22. Await for light Light is everything in photography. Spend your time looking for light, even if you aren't taking photos. Expect for sun beams and breaks, reflections, shadows, natural low-cal, artificial light. See how lite interacts with the surroundings. See light.

23. Comprehend shade The wonderful side effect of light is shadow. Shadow is as valuable as light and gives depth and shape to objects. Employ shadow in your images. Don't run from shadow. Encompass information technology.

24. Patience Is the light not right? Is the bailiwick in the wrong spot? Sometimes the wrongs of a photo tin can get rights, if you take time to let the rights happen. Modern life is much faster than it was long ago. Use photography to irksome it down and enjoy moments in time. Then, capture them with your camera.

25. Know the rules, and break them Cliche, only true. An intentionally over- or underexposed epitome is normally much more compelling than 1 that was incorrectly exposed accidently. The only good blur is intentional blur. Photography is aesthetic and you can explore the fringes of what looks good and what doesn't. But, have a reason to be at the fringe, because the "my photographic camera settings were messed up" excuse is non a good reason for promoting soft focus or motion blur. The photo may be compelling, only intentionally compelling is the improve style to get.

26. Know your lenses Unlike lenses do dissimilar things to an image. Know how your telephotos compress and your broad-angles distort. Employ the all-time lens for your photographic vision. Fisheye portraits are fun, merely non corking for professional headshots. Sometimes you just take your one lens. Know its strengths and weaknesses. For all your lenses, know which apertures are sharpest and know when yous lose sharpness.

27. Don't overload your quiver A heavy camera pocketbook is no fun, unless someone else is carrying it for yous. Pack just what you need and hope yous didn't leave something important behind. Photography tin go a chore when you are overloaded with gear. Minimize and travel light. Your shoulders and back will thank you. And so volition your spirit.

28. Know your surroundings When yous look through a viewfinder, you narrow your field of view of the globe around yous. Situational awareness is disquisitional. Are y'all standing in the middle of a busy street? Are you blocking others from a slap-up view? Are you in a bad section of town? Be aware of what is happening around you both for safe and courtesy and to encounter and capture more images.

29. Know the atmospheric condition Proceed a weather centre on the horizon. Weather tin programme an important role in your image: air current, clouds, dominicus, rain, snow, lightning, etc. Conditions tin can help make an epitome, or ruin your whole day. Use the weather condition to make better photos. Wear sunscreen. Wear a hat. Stay warm. Stay cool. Stay dry. Be prepared and be safe.

thirty. Celestial awareness Long the purview of the night photographer, knowing when and where angelic bodies will rise and fix can be critical to your imagery. Planning helps make better images at all times. Of form, you might simply have to play the cards you are dealt, merely, if you give a nod to studying the rotation of the Globe, you might stack the deck in your favor.

31. Analyze your old images Be your harshest critic. Internalize it. Written report your images and learn from your own mistakes. Or, if yous notice your images are perfect, quit earlier they are not!

32. Try a prime lens Zoom lenses are convenient and optically very good, merely at that place is not yet a substitute for a pinnacle-quality prime lens. A zoom tin can mask laziness in photography. The prime number forces y'all to not only recollect, but to move, every bit well. This volition open more than opportunities than it volition close.

33. Photo project / concept At that place is certainly a place for random snapshots in the world of photography but, a coherent photograph projection, especially when it is generated from an internal concept driven by passion can cocky-inspire you lot to create a solid body of piece of work. Do y'all want to tell a story? Do you want to document social or physical modify? Use your photographic camera to illustrate your thoughts.

34. Abstracts See the pocket-size parts of a scene. Look for the copse in the forest. The light or shadow may be creating an paradigm inside your prototype. Find information technology. Capture information technology. Some photographers know aught but the abstract. Some know no abstractions. Find your own balance. Explore the scene and create.

35. Photographing pretty things Flowers, sunsets, mountains, and babies are already pretty. Your camera just proves that betoken. In that location is nothing wrong with photographing pretty things—I do it all the fourth dimension—merely sometimes you tin surprise yourself by using your photographic camera to make something unattractive suddenly attractive, or, at least, visually interesting. The camera and photographer can combine to possess the power to capture what the eye might disregard.

36. Editing It is likely that not every shot y'all took was great, then look difficult, exist critical, and discard images that do non make the cut. Granted, photography is subjective, and someone might love a shot that you lot do not love, merely, yous are the most of import viewer of your work, so only show what y'all love.

37. Critique Open yourself to critique after you take critiqued yourself. Put on your armor, only know that, again, photography is subjective, and then listen respectfully to opinions and be open-minded so that y'all may learn and grow—especially if you agree with them. Merely call up, e'er, if you dearest an image that you accept made, no i should be able to take that away from you. If you lot hang it on your wall or display it on your reckoner screen and bask looking at it, you have made a successful epitome.

38. Develop a fashion If your photos look similar everyone else's, there is nothing wrong with that. However, if you want your personality to smoothen through your images, so experiment and notice a style that suits your artistic vision. Be consistent with your style, but likewise realize that your fashion might non fit every shooting situation. Don't force it. Always know the fundamentals so yous can fall back on them when needed.

39. Search yourself for improvement, not your gear A great photographer can brand a groovy photograph with any camera. A poor photographer can brand a poor photograph with the world's about expensive camera. Photography is a technologically based fine art form, only the engineering science does non make the art, the human behind the camera does. Exercise non wait for solutions in something that runs on batteries and arrives in a box.

40. Study fine art Other forms of fine art tin can teach and inspire the photographer, particularly painting. I adopt photographic art exhibits, but, when I am in the presence of paintings, I report them to meet how the artist used colour, light, shadow, line, composition, etc, to brand the image successful—or not.

41. Don't lose the moment Those 2 moments I mentioned above, when I did not have a camera to capture them, I remember vividly because I was present and I was not looking through a viewfinder. I take thousands of images from a 10-solar day trip to Eastern Europe, but today I struggle to tell friends what city I was standing in when I took a particular photo. Yous can get lost in your camera's viewfinder and the procedure of making photos. Recall to live first, experience the moment, be present, and only and so try to capture it.

42. Look for images Even if you are without a camera (Why didn't you take #2 to heart?), look for photographs. Non every camera can capture every virtual photograph, but your heart and mind certainly can. Constantly see the world around you and look for photographs, even if they are incommunicable to capture with the gear you lot have in your handbag or front end pocket. Look for photographs. Look for photographs.

43. Experiment Push yourself. Push your gear. Experiment with different settings, scenes, lights, darks, colors, everything. You volition never know what yous can capture until yous capture it. The magic of digital photography is that each epitome is most free, so the only matter you may waste matter is a fraction of a second. Free your mind. Be artistic with your camera.

44. Have fun If you lot aren't enjoying photography, #1 through #43 are not going to help. Smile behind the lens. Create fine art. Capture moments. Share images. Get outside. Explore inside. But, regardless of your results, have fun with photography. Naught else really matters—not even the photograph.

Take whatsoever tips of your own that you'd like to share? Bring together the conversation in the Comments department, beneath!