Photography Tips For Beginners

Photographers love to master new photography techniques in order to create amazing effects with the photos that they take. Whether you are using a professional camera or only relying on your high end smartphone camera, you will find it fulfilling and inspirational when you discover some of these amazing photography tips.

At EzyPoster, we find great delight in printing some of the most amazing photos from our customers on canvas prints and posters that we frame for them. Many enjoy displaying their beautiful photography in their homes and offices.

Hence learning new photography techniques will open up endless possibilities and allow you to discover your creative side. You will feel satisfied when you have these incredible photographs printed to display in your home and office.  

If you want to take photos with the "wow" factor built in them, the Rule of Thirds is the composition secret that you need to take advantage of. To do this, imagine four lines, two lying horizontally across the image and two vertical creating nine even squares.

While some images will look great being at the centre focal point but placing the subject off-center at one of the intersecting points of the imaginary lines will often create a more aesthetically composed photograph.

When a photo is composed using the rule of thirds, the eyes will wander the frame making it more pleasing to the eye.  

Night Photography

Ever wonder how professional photographers are able to take photos of night time city life clearly with all the lights? Or have you come across cool photos with night time traffic with trailing beams of light? It's all in the shutter speed.

If you are interested to take photos of traffic light trails, just find a high traffic area on a clear night.

To capture high quality night photography, you need a super slow shutter speed along with a tripod or solid surface to steady your camera for long exposures. This is to avoid camera shake which will end up blurring your photos. Use a slow shutter speed to blur the motion of the lights.

Don't be afraid to play with the shutter speed to create some interesting effects when taking night time photography. You could try shooting with the shutter speed at 4 seconds which will allow you to see the movement of the object along with some light trails.  

Black and white photography when done properly will usually convey a deep sense of emotion or drama. Effective black and white photography starts with the composition by making full use of the shadows, lighting and strong objects to create powerful imagery.

One of the most common reasons why people want to shoot in black and white is because it lends a certain timeless quality to the images.

This is because we still think of black and white as being a throwback to the photographic past.  

Smoke Art Photography

Modern smoke art photography is a type of abstract photography. This type of photography is usually taken in a well ventilated studio as you would not want to smoke yourself out.

You will need a small torch or portable light in your dark studio which is where you will make and capture the smoke. Sources of smoke that are usually used by photographers are incense sticks or dry ice. The photos are usually taken with a pitch black or white backgound.

Ideally you will need a DSLR since you will want to manually control the aperture, shutter speed and focus.

You will need to set your brightness controls to low and since smoke moves quickly, set your shutter speed to as fast as your camera will allow in order to document each small motion.

Don't be afraid to experiment with different lighting and shutter speed.  

Use Simple Backgrounds

In order to bring to focus what is important in your photo, you want to avoid any distraction and the best way to do so is by choosing a simple background.

Choosing a plain background would include neutral colors and simple patterns that will not distract the viewer. You want the eye to be drawn to the focal point of the image instead of to a patch of color or an odd building or distraction in the background.

This is usually the case when the model or object of focus is placed off center.  

Don't Use Flash Indoors

When capturing photos, you want your shots to look as natural as possible. Flash can make your photos look unnatural especially for indoor portraits.

But don't worry as there are different ways you can take shots indoors without using the flash.

Increase the ISO on your camera (normal range is 800) to 1600 which will make a big difference for the shutter speed. Use the widest aperture as possible so that more light will reach the cameras' sensors which will give you a nice blurred background.

Use a tripod or Image Stabilization lens to avoid blur if you need to.

If you really need to use flash, make sure you can rotate the flash head of your camera up to point to the ceiling on an angle.  

High Speed Photography

High speed photography is capturing the moments that happen in a fraction of time which you can't see with the naked eye like a splash of water or a balloon bursting.

There are two basic ways to do this. One is to shorten the shutter speed and the second is to use flash in a way that the time the subject is illuminated is extremely minimal.

The common denominator between these two methods is that the exposure made on the camera sensor is extremely brief.

The necessary shutter speed to freeze the action will depend on how fast your subject is moving. The direction the subject is moving as well as how fast the subject is from the camera and how much you are zoomed in matters a lot.

Popular uses of high speed photography is taking the images where the subject spills, scatters, breaks, drops, drips or flies around. Taking these shots is often messy if they are done indoors. So lots of preparation are required.

If you prefer to take high speed shots outdoors, the usual subjects would be wildlife that is moving, hunting, flying or swimming. Patience is required but the shots will be amazing when you managed to capture them.   

Panoramic Photography

You can also capture panoramic photos even if you don't have an expensive camera. There is a technique called panorama stitching which involved the use of a tripod to steady the camera where you take a series of side by side photographs and merge them together later on.

This is sometimes known as wide format photography.

Panoramic photography are usually used to capture beautiful scenery to show the width and breath that will wow viewers.  

Silhouette Photography

Silhouette photography is an excellent way to add drama, mood and mystery to a photo. The dark shape or outline of the subject in front of a lighter background will draw the attention of the viewer to give them a deeper connection to the image.

The best time to take silhouette photos is during sunrise or sunset where you use natural lighting as the background. For instance, you can position your subject in front of the sun and shoot into the sun.

A faster shutter speed will result in a darker exposure and a slower shutter speed will create a brighter image.

Reflection Photography

The wonderful thing about using reflections when taking photos is that they can completely alter the image from something that is straightforward to something richer or abstract making it more artistic.

Usually using water, windows, mirrors or any reflective surface can change an image into a work of art.

Capturing a good reflection in a photograph is very often a matter of getting the right angle. Reflections are generated thanks to a source of light but this source of light can't show up in your image.

Weather also plays an important role in photographing reflections. Aim for calm weather and a completely still body of water if you're planning to capture reflections using water.

If you want to explore reflections in photography, look for ponds, windows and other reflective surfaces. Explore nature and take unique landscape photography with reflections.