I would like to share a little bit of my photography knowledge with you. Just like the title says I want to share with you three things to help improve your photography skills. By no means am I stating that these are the golden rules of portraiture. These are things that I have picked up over the years and by watching hours of youtube but they are a game-changer if used correctly
The first tip that I would like to go over is Composing your image. What I mean by this is it is very easy to just bring up your camera point and snap the photo. What really makes a difference and people will start to notice is taking an extra five seconds to look at your screen or through the viewfinder and take a look at what else might be in your image that could be considered a distraction. I still am making this mistake and will show you my photos of what I did wrong and how to correct it. In the image below, for example, I should have paid more attention to the surrounding area and moved myself or the camera to get the sign on the left out of the image. An easy way to fix something like that is to just crop the image down a little bit to remove the sign. See how it is less of a distraction with that sign out of the image.
The second tip that will help your images is knowing how to do basic color corrections. This tip can be corrected in your camera as you are taking the photo but for mobile phone selfie-takers, you can only correct this after the photo is taken. The Spark Notes version of color correcting is when you take a photo and you notice that it is too yellow or blue. This is due to your camera trying to guess the white balance of your surroundings. The easy way to fix this is if your image is too yellow (warm) you add more blue (cold) to it to bring back the natural color tones. Same if the image is too blue (cold), you warm up the image by adding more yellow to your image. Next time before posting your image right away to Instagram I know they have this slider in there basic editing settings to help warm or cool and image. Give it a try next time and see if it makes a difference in your photos.
The third tip that I would like to share is getting out of your camera's automatic settings. I know that is a more broad subject but it really can help. Cell phones are a little more difficult with this tip since you can't do much as far as setting your camera up manually. Those of you who are using digital cameras or DSLR's should stop using the "P" or auto settings. I'll admit I did start out my photography career using the auto settings. As time passed I wasn't getting the images that I wanted. I did my research and realized that having my camera in the "P" (which means Programmed Automatic) was having a camera with the training wheels still on. What that mode does is you are allowing the camera to make all the decisions for you. How much light to let in by setting the Aperature, how fast to expose the sensor to your subject by setting the shutter speed. The number one thing that you should definitely be in control of is your ISO.
If you'd like I can write another post about how to get out of your Programmed Automatic setting and how to understand the different features that go into taking a well-balanced photo.
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog and if you'd like I can post a video about it to my channel as well.
