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Photo Tips for Beginners

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Thanslated from:
Sergey Ivanov, www.masterfoto.info

We give here some simple advice for beginners. Folowing it you'll be able to make your photos considerably better.

Your picture will be more interesting if you have some plot within it. You can come closer or use your camera zoom.

When shooting landscape leave some detail in the frame for it to catch the eye, it can be a twig, a grass stem, or a human being. If there's nothing around, try changing your shooting point or just ask your friend to have a picknic in front of the camera.

Don't do so - the resulted picture is boring.

Try to avoid shooting objects that merge with the background. Find another shooting point or harder background. Make the shadow of the object emphasize it or limit the depth of field.
You should also avoid bright lights or color spots, they would deter attention from the subject.

The sky or sea line is best of all when it is one third from the top or bottom line.

Don't make your picture symmetrical unless there's some particular purpose to it.

Use windows, arches, branches etc. to frame the picture plot. Frames can also hide unwanted detail or fill boring sky, and give additional volume to your picture as well.

Try the left and right parts of the picture balance. It is easy to check if they do: imagine your picture standing on a fingerpoint.
Don't bend skyline without purpose. MInd that askew sealine is especially offending to the eye..

When shooting at high exposure values you can accentuate the speed of the movement by blurring either the subject or the background. Or just get some other interesting results.

Try not to tilt your camera up or down - it can result in rather uncomfortable perspective distortions, especially with long-focused lenses. When taking photos of buildings use special Shift-lenses.
Making a close-up portrait keep your camera at an eye-level. With full figure portraits have it at breast or waistline - thus you'll avoid "short leg" effect.

Front lighting (from within the back of the photographer) will kill your volume. Built in flashes do it best of all. Use soft lateral and rear-lateral illumination.
Interestingly, the flash can be very useful when you take your photos on a bright sunny day - it can help to illuminate deep shadows from beneath.

Group photos look much better if people are arranged in some interesting way, not standing in a row. May be you'll manage to talk them into taking some unusual poses.
Watch for the skyline not to cut the head. Avoid branches and posts growing out of heads. When making a portrait take the whole figure. If it doesn't fit in cut legs to the middle of a thigh and arms to shoulders, not hands. And it would be even better asking the person to take some compact pose - to sit down for instace.

Eyes make the essentical part of the portrait, that's why they should be the sharpest in the picture. If you cannot focus on them try do it on the upper button, it is usually on the same focal plane as the eyes.

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