Photo 101: Snapshot vs Photograph
Monday, January 5th, 2009
by Joe
1. Perspective
Portray the subject in a way that a viewer might not ordinarily see it. For instance, you can either take a picture of a toddler from 6ft above or you can get down on the toddler’s level and give the photo the perspective from the child’s point of view.
2. Preparation
Point and shoot. Those are what those little cameras are called and that’s exactly what people do with them. STOP, take a second and look through the view finder, compose your shot. Look at it. Ask yourself:
- What am I taking a picture of? (Subject)
- Where am I going to place the subject in my photo?
- What is the lighting like?
- Do I need to change my perspective?
Asking those questions in your head really quickly can improve your photos drastically. With the new digital age we see a depreciation in the quality of images that are out there. Back when film was costly people actually thought about the shot before they took them.
3. Composition
For example, you are walking down the street and you see a cute dog tied to a fire hydrant looking bored. Imagine the normal point of view that you have looking at the dog. You are standing up and looking down on the dog. That is how someone would normally photograph the dog. It is not very interesting, it is not unique.
There you have it, three simple ways to improve your images right now. Come back and we’ll touch more in depth on some of these things above.
