58mm 1/200sec f/5 ISO 100
If you are anything like me, sometimes you can’t help but look at some of your Friend’s selfies or photo of something and go “If only they did this [insert your correction here], this would be a much better photo.” This is really something that everyone does, because we all think we are experts to some degree, and it’s especially easy to do when you yourself do a similar activity regularly. Like for me, it’s taking photos. As an example, I think my Mom takes a lot not-so-great photos, and I hope she can someday fix. I immediately think of her when I “Professionally Critique” things, because I hold her to a higher standard because, well… she’s my Mom. She should know how to do this or know better, right? Right?
If you do this on the regular with others too… and not just your Mom, then show them this article and maybe you can help them take better photos. That’s the idea behind my tips series of articles.
(Mom, this one is for you.)
For this article, I will go over a couple common mistakes that ultra beginners, like my Mom, make when taking photos and how they can fix them. These problems are sourced directly from, you guessed it, my Mom. (I freaking love that Woman.)
Here’s an example of a shot that I think most everyone will understand:
The Vacation Shot
This one probably bothers me the most, almost everywhere my Mom and I go together, she will inevitably take at least one of these. Because I love my Mom and know how happy it makes her, I’ll ask her to take a few photos of me at wherever we’re at if she forgets. Even if I know I probably won’t like them because of some of the mistakes she makes that I’m about to list. Her happiness means a lot to me than the photos themselves do.
The reason I am calling this a “Vacation Shot” to provide you some idea of what I’m about to tell you. This is the kind of shot where someone is standing in front of a landmark, tourist attraction, or doing some activity trying to portray how happy they are, and are taken by someone who isn’t an experienced photographer. These are the kinds of shots where you ask the stranger to take it. Just to be clear, these types of photos aren’t taken on vacation trips exclusively.
This is one such example. I had to dig a bit for this photo, which was taken by my Mom several years ago of me practicing in a Kayak for a pickup game of Kayak Polo. It’s exactly like Water Polo, but with Kayaks. My Mom still holds this as one of her favorite photos of me. Because this picture exhibits traits in what I want to illustrate in the Vacation Shot, I’m going to pick at it a bit.
Lets get started.
In this example above, you beginners may not know what the issue is. Objectively speaking, there isn’t anything inherently wrong with this picture. It’s in focus, the subject is within the frame, and is decently exposed. Generally that’s what makes a good photograph. Though the exposure could be bumped up a bit in editing, I look a little dark. LG smartphones in 2017 weren’t great with their cameras in low light, so I won’t be too critical about it.
So, what’s wrong with this photo?
To put it simply, I am NOT the subject.
“How can that be?” Is what you are probably asking. Even though it’s clear the intent was for me to be the subject of this photo, that isn’t what this picture really is. This picture is really of the pool of water… and I’m just in it. Look at the photo and think about that for a second. If that didn’t immediately make sense, then I’ll do my best to explain it for you.
I’d like you to provide yourself with another example in case the one above didn’t do it for you, they’re abundantly easy to find. Look at some photos of a trip some of your friends or family have had, look at them and ask a question similar to this one:
“With this photo of Aunt Sally at the Grand Canyon, is there more of Aunt Sally or the Grand Canyon?”
This question was designed to point out what the subject truly is in a photo, and if the photo was taken by an ultra beginner, like my Mom. If that is the case, most likely there’s going to be more of the place in the photo than of the intended subject.
Now, lets talk about how we can fix this; or rather, prevent it from happening again. With this photo of me, if I could take a time machine and show my mom how to do it properly, this is exactly what I would tell her: “We already know I’m in a swimming pool, you don’t need to show the whole pool.”
Please don’t mind my crude drawing, you are going to have to use your imagination a bit. I’m not a photoshop miracle worker. I wish I could provide a better visual representation of what I’m about to write about. I’ll do my best to explain the changes I made.
First, Find the ideal angle. This one probably the hardest one to understand for most, and I’ll admit I still struggle with this one from time to time. The ideal angle is the way you want your subject to be seen in the photo. A simple way to look at it are faces. You could choose to shoot straight on, or on the side like a coin. Ideally, you want that to be somewhere in between. The angle always varies, so don’t stick to a single angle if you can help it. You can influence the angle either by moving yourself around the subject or having your subject move and rotate for you. The angle can also be changed by the way light meets the subject, like a sunrise or a sunset.
On the shot above, the angle at which I’m framed is mostly correct, it’s a little too high, in conjunction with zoom (more on that in a moment) it shows more water than the more interesting background of the walls, diving blocks, the goal, the lifeguards, and maybe that guy in those stands. My Mom was standing when she took this photo, so the first thing to do for the angle would be to lower the camera to a little above my eye level. Imagine squatting from this position to take this photo again. That is why the water line stops just behind the tail of my Kayak in my drawing, rather than where it is in the original photo. (Ignore the perspective of me and my kayak)
After you do this, get the correct zoom. This is the most common mistake to make in the Vacation shot. Sometimes this isn’t the photographer’s fault, because sometimes its a limitation of the camera used. But zoom is often under-utilized in the Vacation shot, creating a “more of the place rather than the person” kind of photo. This can be fixed with cropping. In my drawing example, I occupy more of the frame. By doing this, the focus of the shot is more specifically of me, while not losing the context of the overall photo of me in a pool doing Kayak Polo.
Finally, the Rule of Thirds. This is a term that you will hear a LOT in photography. The Rule of Thirds (RoT) is a loose visual guideline, or rather guide-LINES, on how to frame a photo for a specific subject. The concept and the way it works is actually quite simple. It infers that the viewer’s eye naturally goes to specific places in most photos. These are called points of interest, that generally lie in the “thirds” of photos. Think of a heatmap, but for pictures. Here is an example below.
Notice that the subject isn’t directly on any one of those lines. You shouldn’t be all-in about putting the subject on those lines at all. The idea is that you frame your subject so that the eye snaps to that part of the photo on first glance AND leave room for the background to provide context as to what the subject is doing. So back up to my crude example, notice that I am no longer in the exact center anymore, I’m a bit more to the left now, and if you drew a RoT line on the left, I wouldn’t really be touching it at all. BUT I am occupying the lower third line with my Kayak, still drawing the eye to me as the subject and leaving room for the background for context.
Rule of Thirds is your friend.
If you can get those three things down, most every shot you take will look much better. It will take a lot of practice, so I recommend you memorize these steps.
58mm 1/200sec f/5 ISO 100
Here’s a little bonus tip
When you get to the point that you can take a great shot of a subject, you can begin to enhance the draw of the image even more by adding Lens blur. Commonly referred to as Depth of Field. Depth of Field, is the blurring effect that takes place when you target the fine focus of your camera on your subject. In my example above, you can see that the shooter is in focus but the orange clay pigeon on the left is obscure and blurry. This creates a focal focus for the viewer to snap to the subject.
Most smartphones now can do this automatically, especially if you tap on the subject of interest. Looking at you IPhone Users specifically. But for those of you that are using a traditional camera, you can control this with the type of lens you use, and with your aperture settings. The aperture controls how much exposed light meets the sensor. To show you how this works, we are going to use your eye. Try and read the following line of text with your screen about 2 to 3 inches from your face, it should be hard to read.
I AM A SEXY HUMAN BEING. (Yes, you are a sexy human being, own it)
It should be blurry to you, right? But if you squint and read it again through your eyelashes, it becomes clearer. That is because, like an aperture, you are controlling the incoming light so it’s easier to see the text. With that understanding, by controlling the amount of light into a camera sensor, you can play with the Depth of Field. In this Example, my aperture is set to f/5, which all things considered is on the more open-end of apertures. If I had set this to say, f/10 without changing the shutter speed or ISO, the image would appear darker and the background objects including the clay pigeon would be more in focus.
The way aperture works mechanically is with a series of “blades” in a circle to control the amount of light to the camera sensor. It’s also the same way your Iris works in your eye when it contracts and relaxes depending on how bright it is. The lower the number value of an aperture, the more light gets through to the sensor, because it’s wider it creates a sharper depth of field. The higher the number value is… you get the idea. To be quick: f/2.8 means more blurred background, and f/11 means more in focused background.
There’s a term called F-Stop that has to do with playing with the aperture, but that will be explained in a later article.
For now, go out and take what you have learned to make some great photos. Hopefully you, and now some of your friends and family can take great photos!