A lot of people consider gorgeous days of abundant sunshine to be ideal for snapping good photos, but direct sunlight is actually a good way to mess up a good picture. Not only does it cast awkward shadows and glaring, it also causes uneven highlights, and causes your subjects to squint when facing the camera. The best possible times of day for taking photos are late evening and early morning.
You do not have to always hold your camera horizontally when taking pictures. Sometimes, the most striking photographs come when you turn the camera to capture a vertical shot. Zoom in so that you can really focus in, or zoom the lens out to capture the whole subject.
Get creative with different perspectives and scales in your photography. An otherwise ordinary subject can appear quite artful if placed in an environment where it appears drastically disproportionate in size or humorously out of place. You will be able to take good pictures of familiar objects by working on the composition.
If you are designated as the principle coordinator of an upcoming photo shoot, take care to make notes about what each person hopes to achieve in the final results. This can be an invaluable aid to you when the heat is on and you have little time to think.
You must know how far your flash can reach, especially in the dark. Otherwise, your pictures will be too dark to view. Use your flash and get to know it before you begin taking dark pictures.
Blur the background of shots with people in them just a little bit. A sharply focused background pulls attention from your subject, and that is not ideal. You want your viewer's eye to fall on the intended subject. The easiest way to do this is to increase the distance between subject and background.
Take pictures of strange and interesting things when you travel to a new place. While they may not seem that important at the time, when you get home and start to reflect on your trip, having these smaller memories will be great. Every time something strikes your fancy, pull out your camera and photograph it.
When shooting outdoors, use a flash or light to fill in any shadowy areas caused by the sun. Not using the flash to shoot could cause subjects to appear too dark.
Inspire your own creative photographs by joining photography clubs or taking photos with another photographer. You can learn from others and pick up new ideas, but avoid letting their style take over your own. Taking time to compare the photographs that you took will help you to see how different people can interpret images differently.
As you can see, photography is much more complicated than most people give it credit for. The quality of the photos you shoot will only increase by doing this.
