Photography Tips

Hints & Tips

Here we provide some tips on how to improve your photography skills. The main thing to remember is to experiment, have fun and enjoy yourself!

Professional

• Always have a skylight filter on all of your camera lenses. Its only a few pounds to replace a filter, lenses cost much more!
• An old stocking or pair of tights makes a great soft focus filter.
• Use a shallow 'Depth of Field' to draw a subject away from its background.
• Use fill in flash on a backlit subject.
• Put tracing paper over your flash head to soften the light.
• With a hot shoe adaptor and extension lead you can remove your flash gun from your camera and thus eliminate 'red-eye'.
• Use all of the screen if you want to focus on something close up. You don't always have to capture any background.

Amateur

• Study your manual – Doing so will ensure that you are at one with your camera and will stop you from missing out on vital shots.
• Are you in focus – Don't spoil a great shot by not getting the subject into focus.
• Eye Contact – When taking a portrait shot, try and consider the impact of eye contact.
• Have Patience – Especially with children. It may take time to get the right shot or for the subject to become ready.
• Memory cards – Ensure that you have plenty of storage space. You may find that you take more pictures than intended. Don't waste time deleting images when you could be taking them.
• Practice – Practice makes perfect.
• Don't Delete – You may take a shot and find it poor quality at first glance, but don't delete it. You may find that you can zoom into certain aspects and create a great photo, without using the whole of the original image.
• Lighting – always consider the effect that light will have on your shot, whether the light is bright or minimal.
• Move around – When photographing your subject, move around to see if you can get a better angle and create an image with more impact.
• Landscape – Always consider the surrounding area. Think about whether you want to feature the background or not.
• Take control – Gently direct people to move into the view of your shot.
• Seize the moment – When taking people shots, don't always wait for everyone to get into position or for people to pose. Often shots taken whilst people are unawares are some of the best.
• On a level – Get on a level with your subject if at all possible. This will mean that your subject has more of a connection with the camera.