How to take smart photos: 10 key standards for proper photography [Update]

It is sad to invest money in a good SLR camera and not be able to take more than failed, ugly and disastrous photos, one after the other, due to a naive oversight about the basic rules of photography, rules that any photographer, regardless of his beginner. , should be. Today I bring you a series of simple technical tips in photography and some very basic rules that will tell you how to make good photographs, or at least correct ones, that satisfy the view?From there, making them spectacular will depend solely on you. At least the rules will be on your side.

As planned, here are the first steps to knowing how to take good pictures. Can it only be improved from here?

  • This rule is very simple but has enormous power in the way we view the photo.
  • Consists of mentally dividing the image into 9 equal parts (using 2 parallel horizontal lines and 2 vertical horizontal lines).
  • And then placing the subject in a place where the lines intersect This photo illustrates this perfectly:.

As you can see, the photographer placed the bird at the intersection point at the bottom left of the frame, any other intersection would have served us as well.

This in photography is called forces. These are points that attract attention and give greater interest and importance to the subject.

Useful to know how to take good landscape photos. When composing a photo, before shooting, imagine 2 parallel horizontal lines that divide the photo into 3 equal parts. This applies to portrait and landscape modes.

If you want it to be especially interesting is the sky, place the horizon on the baseline, if on the contrary you want to give more importance to the terrestrial landscape, place the horizon on the second line, the one above. .

It’s simple as you’ll see, it’s not far from the most complex photographic techniques and yet it’s really effective.

Speaking of horizons. It is one thing to include a twisted horizon with a clear intention to create tension with a diagonal, and it is another thing to inadvertently leave a twisted horizon. The first well-executed case is generally attractive, the second deastrous, you can spoil an image in which I have spent a lot of time.

Discover photography by taking photos with your camera from bold and unusual angles. For example, take a picture of yourself in the rearview mirror of the car (only when you are not the driver, please) or capture the image of a historic building reflected in a water. Pool.

Take close-up photos of small objects. Capture the details and complete the framing. You can even focus exclusively on the details, ignoring the rest of the object. The results are generally very eye-catching.

This is especially useful when there are so many distracting elements around the subject that all it does is hinder the scene and divert attention.

If you want to know how to take good photos of children, squats or knees, try lowering and placing the camera at the same height as the child or animal you want to photograph, you will convey more realism and the impact will be much greater.

For portraits, use the outdoor flash. Even if it’s a particularly sunny day, the flash avoids shaded areas that occupy the person’s face, such as wearing a hat or something throwing shade or because the sun is above or behind the person photographed. The best way to avoid this is to force the flash. It is called additional flash, and its purpose is not to illuminate the darkness, but to fill the subject’s face with light so that the light is uniform with its surroundings.

This same effect can also be achieved with a reflector

One of the most basic and important technical photography tips I can give you is to ensure good exposure, both an underexposed or very dark photo as well as a burnt or overexposed one.

Find the right light point, your camera’s semi-automatic modes will help you do so, and the histogram to see if it’s well exposed.

In this comparison, you can see an underexposed (above) and overexposed (bottom) photo.

And now the same photo exposed correctly

It is important not to confuse here high key and low key, for example, the following image is taken discreetly, although it is dark, does not mean that it is underexposed, because what you want to show is correctly exposed.

When I talk about sharpness, I don’t expect you to get a professional sharpness, but a minimum. To get a correct photo, you need to make sure the subject doesn’t get agitated (unless you’re doing it on purpose) and that it’s well tuned, even if you blur everything else.

The image below, besides being a good example of overexposure, is a perfect example of blurry photo, if you look at it, the girl who should be the protagonist of the image is blurry, while the plants on her right are.

In this other image, however, you can see that it is not blurry or blurry, even if the background is blurry.

What if you really want to know how to take good pictures?

Take your photos in RAW format, especially when you’re trying to take good photos, not just photos of your uncle’s birthday memory. No, these photos that you put a lot of care on, in which you don’t mind taking time to develop front of the computer to adjust them and make the most of them.

Not that it is the solution to make good photographs, but this format preserves all the elements of the image (colors, light, shadows, saturation) and allows, thanks to post-processing, to move them at will. By capturing a correct photo from the beginning, you can get a much better one in development. Taking a JPG photo produces a final photo in which we would have no more space to edit. (Learn more about the pros and cons of shooting RAW, here. )

I hope you enjoyed today’s article. If so, don’t hesitate to recommend it on your favorite social network.

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