Emilie's Tips and Tricks on Becoming a Better Photographer
A brief disclaimer. I am not a professional. I am a 20 year old college student who has been an amateur photographer for the past 4 or so years. My knowledge mostly comes from the internet and screwing around on my own. I have taken a Black and White Photography class at my college but that is the extent of my 'official' training. I am by no means an expert. There is still much I have to learn. That being said, since I was in the same boat as my brother only a few years ago maybe my knowledge can help you.
First: my setup. I use primarily a Canon Eos Rebel xsi with either a 55-250mm zoom or a 18-55mm. I also shoot primarily in RAW mode (more on this later). However as my brother has a Nikon (traitor!) I will not be focusing on any camera or brand specific topics. For post-processing I use Apple's Aperture and Adobe's Photoshop.
Step One: Getting to Know Your Equipment.
I know reading your manual seems boring (spoiler it is) but you really need to learn what functions your camera offers and how to use them. I would also suggest putting tabs on features you think you will reference often. Its much easier to figure this out if you skim through your manual and play with your camera before heading out to a location. The back of a DSLR is a bit intimidating at first glance (so many buttons!) but learning what they do and how to use them is vital. Also go through all of the menus. You should learn how to change your image quality, shape etc. For example i shoot in RAW mode. This means that in post-processing I have a lot more to work with. It also means that my file sizes are quite large compaired to other qualities. Shooting in RAW is not necessary and is more of a personal preference. I would suggest bringing your image quality about as high as your camera will let you however. More about RAW and which camera quality is best for you here.
For example recently I was perusing my manual and stumbled across something called focal point selection. Previously I had been letting my camera select the focal point for me automatically. The result of this was photographs where the point of focus wasn't exactly where I wanted it and it took away from the picture. Take for instance some pictures of a rabbit I took a year or so ago.
(There was an attempt to make these images roll over, it failed. However you can see in the second picture that I was on auto focal point mode, the camera attempted to choose the focal points and ended up focusing more on the back of the rabbit and the grass than their eye. *Click photos to view larger version on Flickr*)
When taking pictures of living things generally you want the focal point of your picture to be their eye(s). However by letting my camera automatically select the focal point it was hit or miss whether or not the bunny's eye was correctly in focus (more misses than hits). Now look at a picture I took this summer of another rabbit (we get a lot of them in our backyard and being 'city' rabbits their pretty brave and will let you get close). This time I manually selected where I wanted my focal point. Much better!
(Here I chose the single focal point directly on the rabbit's eye. *Click photos to view larger version on Flickr*)
On SLRs (and DSLRS) there are Manual and Auto shooting modes. I primarily shoot in TV (Time Value) which is a semi-manual mode in which the camera chooses my aperture based on the conditions and I set the ISO and shutter speed. Which shooting mode you choose is all based on personal preference and shooting conditions. I would suggest shooting in either TV or AV (aperture value) and getting more comfortable with your camera's manual settings. It gives you a lot more freedom for how you want your shot to end up. On both SLRs and point-and-shoot cameras there are also preset auto modes such as portrait, landscape, action etc. These can be useful as well for more inexperienced photographers or if you are taking pictures in which conditions are rapidly changing and you do not have time to fiddle with settings. A more in-depth review of all of the different shooting modes can be found here.
Have you ever seen a picture of an everyday item that really pops? There's just something about it that draws your eyes in and gives you a whole new perspective on something you see every day? Thats where composition comes in and this is what makes photography an art form.
The Rule of Thirds: You may have heard of this before, the ear and eye naturally like things that come in threes. A list doesn't seem complete with two items, but is too long at four. This also applies to photography in a way. Not so much in how many objects are in your photograph but in where you place them. Objects 'shouldn't' be directly centered (I use shouldn't carefully, it's art and rules are made to be broken. Besides they're more like guidelines anyway.)
Find photographers whose work really captures you and spend some time looking at their images. What about them do you like? What don't you like? How do you think you would replicate what they did? And finally try replicating what they did (stylistically not exactly).
Say for instance you (like my brother) really love cars and want to feature them in your photography. Before stepping outside to photograph your car go online and look up photographers who specialize in cars, you can probably find them through magazines like Car and Driver or other publications. What is it about their photographs that really captures the spirit of the car?
I find Flickr a good place to find inspiring photographers. Recently they released 20Under20.
Step Four: Practice Makes Perfect!
The more you use your camera the more you will become familiar with it and the better your photography will be. Make an effort to get your camera out once a week (more if possible!) and spend some time screwing around with it. Photograph whatever you have near you if you don't have time to get outside. See how using different settings affects the image and what works best for different subject types.
A great project to take on is the 365 Project. This is where you commit to taking (at least!) one picture a day for a whole year and posting them on either a blog or a photo-sharing website to mark your progress. Some great examples.
Step Five: Post Processing
In this digital age photography doesn't end when you depress the shutter. Post-processing tweaks can really save an image. As mentioned earlier I use Apples' Aperture and Adobe's Photoshop however their are a myriad of options out there including some great free ones. I personally really like Gimp.
The Digital Photography School:
This is an absolutely fantastic site for any level photographer. They also have a weekly newsletter with popular articles and tips and tricks. I learned so much here.
This site is primarily focused on post-processing edits in photoshop and Lightroom. The host is a little silly at times but gives great advice. There are free and paid videos. I personally haven't purchased any videos, the free ones are very good as they are! You can find them also on YouTube.
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