1. Take the first step

Turn your camera off of automatic, this is the first step towards taking better more artistic photos.

2. Watch your surroundings and background

Be aware of your surroundings, just because you have just seen an amazing picture in your mind slow down. In a hurry to shoot the shot, you missed the car that just raced by, or the busy background that took away from your subject.

3. Relax and breathe

Breathe, relax and prepare for the shot, breathe out as you take the shot to avoid shake.

4. Lower that ISO

You might of read our article on ISO what is it? For fine grade sharp shots lower your ISO the lower the better.

5. Balance that white

Learn your cameras white balance, it allows you simple and amazing creativity over any given shot. Most dSLR cameras allow for manual selection of the white balance. Play, take photos with different white balance settings and see how the different light temperatures affect the final image. Below is a handy chart that illustrates some common light sources.

• 1000 – 2000 K Candlelight
• 2500 – 3500 K Tungsten bulb (the old house light globe)
• 3000 – 4000 K Sunrise / Sunset (clear skies)
• 4000 – 5000 K Fluorescent tubes
• 5000 – 5500 K Electronic flash
• 5000 – 6500 K Daylight clear skies overhead sun
• 6500 – 8000 K Moderately overcast sky
• 9000 – 10000 K Shade or heavy overcast sky

6. Fill that frame

Try to avoid zooming to get closer, if possible bring you and the camera closer to the subject. It is easy to lose subtle facial expressions when you are not right up and personal with your lens.

7. Get Raw

If your camera allows for shooting in RAW format rather than PNG, JPG or TIFF then do so, it will allow for a far greater scope of editing and captures all the fine detail that can often be lost in other formats. If you shoot in any other mode than RAW you are basically missing out on half the picture. Like an MP3 music file while it will still play you the song you just lost the entire atmosphere.

8. Focus on your subject

A single focal point in any picture is often the best course of action, when shooting people, animals or any object that is of primary focal point move in close and shoot as wide open as possible (open aperture low aperture No smaller f-stop all mean the same thing) A wide open aperture gives you a smaller depth of field or blurry background and sharp subject. Of course of you are shooting a landscape or shot that requires depth of field you will want to use a high or bigger f-stop larger aperture No, this in turn will bring the whole shot into focus and make your landscapes come alive.

9. Buy a tripod

Buy a tripod pure and simple; the best shot can be lost with a little handshake and not the friendly variety. Low light can produce some spectacular shots but you must have a tripod, there are so many available today that there is just no excuse to not carry even a small travel variety.

10. Composition

For truly spectacular photos you need to understand how to compose a shot and the rules of composition. You should know and understand, the rule of thirds, the diagonal rule and the rule of golden section. If none of this makes complete sense to you, never mind we will be exploring the rules of composition in our next lesson.

Photo credits

Intro image by kubina