One of the many questions I get asked is how to take a better photo. Depending on who you talk to, many people will have different opinions about this. But personally, my simple advice is to take an extra couple of seconds to compose better. Think about what you can include in the frame, rather than taking a hasty shot right there and then. You’ll be amazed on how much better it looks by taking your time to think about its composition.

Here are some stuff to think about before taking your shot:

• Background – this is probably the very first thing people look at prior to taking the shot, that is because the background is what you see most of when looking at something in front of you – so it comes to no surprise that it is usually the very first thing that comes to mind of a photographer.

• Foreground – choosing what goes into the foreground of a photo can make it a considerably awesome photo. Because the foreground is at the front of the frame, make sure you take a couple of seconds more to choose the best subject (as the foreground focus).

• Subject focus – normally, the biggest mistake that many amateur photographers make is to put the subject focus right smack in the middle of the frame. Although there is nothing wrong by doing this, but some shots looks better by off centering the subject focus. It is done so that the background/foreground also gets the required attention.

The stuff I explained above are my personal opinions! So go easy!

Actually, I had a quick search on the internet to see if I could find a video from someone else on how to take better photos and found this one:
 

In fact, the author’s opinions are somewhat similar to mine. Which is good (I think!).

A picture paints a thousand words. I couldn’t agree more. Nothing is more appealing than good quality photos. Any avid photographer would agree that posting good quality images on their website will speak louder than words . The images will heavily influence how people out there perceive your take on photography. Whether you’re likely an amateur or a seasoned pro. Remember, the world wide web is out there for everybody to see. So don’t skimp on using awesome looking and professional images to upload to your website.

Anyways, here’s a sample of my stock vector images:

 

When it comes to taking awesome and memorable shots, it used to be for the professionals… those with many years of photography experience. The manual adjusting of exposure time, the know how of when to make it a “panaroma” shot or the close action shot. But if you ask the generation now, many would simply not understand. Why? Well they live in the “now” world. Where everything is pretty much automated or at the very least semi-automated. So there is no doubt that it is now easier to take a quality photo than ever before.

Enter the modern era: where buttons and touch screens run supreme! It’s not just what you can see is getting fancy, but the inside of cameras is getting more and more sophisticated. There’s always a good side and somewhat bad sides to everything. For example, modern cameras are easy to operate with many pre-installed settings – making it easy to simply point and shoot in any kind of situations. what’s the bad side you may ask? Well, let’s start with the price. What are you paying for to own these highly sophisticated device? Most of the time, you’re probably paying too much. Not because the cameras are no good. But because you are simply under utilising the device. Although  they come with preset settings, they can be operated manually to fine tune it prior to taking the shot.

But let’s not nit pick about all of this. Overall, everyone is a winner. Beginners get to “point and shoot”, whilst professional get to fine tune the settings manually as before; but digitally. The real winner is the high definition output. As long as the subject’s focus is not too far out, the finish will nearly always look mint. Hands down. Compared to the old days of black and white dark room printing.

Let’s put things in perspective. Yes, we mentioned that the finish quality is amazing. But one thing that can never be automated, not even using a highly sophisticated device… which is the choice of the subject focus. That is, what should you take a snapshot of that will make great photography? Only an experience photographer can make the right choice that could win awards.

As mentioned before, there is a ying yang effect to everything in life. Lesson learnt. Take away message received!