Photography is one of the most interesting areas that you could choose to pursue, and much of the motivation many people get to pursue the area is the need to explore and put their ideas into use. However, it might be challenging to proceed when you are not equipped with the right information. Beginners have to endure the grueling path of trial an error before they master what is required to make their photography a success, but not many are willing to go through the challenging path to acquire the skills. For a simplified guideline as shared by Noelle Neff, a photography and travel expert, here are tips to help you perfect your skills.
Understand the exposure triangle
Getting photography right means capturing and manipulating light in the right manner. To snap good shots, you should understand the exposure triangle. When taking a photo, your camera opens its shutter to let light in, but if the object is lit poorly it cannot look good. There are three things that affect the image and these are the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.
Aperture is the size of the lens that opens and it is often expressed in the format of f/2, f5, f10, and so on. A smaller number means the opening of the aperture is wide, which translates to more light entering. The second factor, shutter speed, stands for how long the shutter is left open, and this is usually stated in the format of 1/200 sec, 5 sec etc. A slow shutter speed means more light is let in, and this affects the sensitivity of the camera to motion. Lastly, you must understand ISO, which is a representation of the sensitivity of the sensor to light. This is expressed as 100 ISO, 200ISO, etc. Using a high ISO helps you to take photos in dark places, but noise (‘grain’) comes as a tradeoff.
The rule of thirds
The rule of thirds is important as it is the guiding factor that helps you to pursue composition well. Composition is simply the placement of all elements in a photo. How this works is that you are supposed to mentally divide the image into three parts using vertical lines as well as two horizontal lines, then make sure to place elements with high value at the any of the intersections formed. Many photographers use this technique, but some of them apply it as a fallback solution when other ideas fail while doing a certain shot.
Post-processing is vital
Regardless of how good you think you are in photography, you need to also factor in post-processing as a step in the preparation of the photos you take. Not all the shots you take will give you the perfect results you are hoping for, so once you are done taking your photo it is advisable to do a bit of post processing which includes editing and refining the photos to the levels of perfection you would like.
There are many high impact filters including the Photoshop software that you could use to refine the look on your photos before you release them to the public. Cameras are flawed devices, and you might not achieve the perfection you were looking for, but you should not give up on a photo before you have tried refining it through post-processing.
