Understanding the basics and improving your photos

Whether you're a pro or just shooting for fun, there are some basics that, if understood, will greatly affect the outcome of your pictures. Of course, photography is very technical and it's a skill that can only improve with practice, but I'll try to make it simple and avoid boring you with technicalities. The following are, in my opinion, some of the most important elements to think about before and while you take your photo.

First thing's first: Shoot manual

I don't know what you've been told or what you've been used to, but if you want great pictures, you need to have complete control over your camera. Only one way to do that: shoot manual. It's the only function that will give you the flexibility to adjust your shutter speed, aperture and ISO and get the most desired outcome for your picture. "To adjust my what !??". Don't worry. We'll go over those terms below.

Getting your exposure right

Exposure is probably the one thing that is constantly on the photographer's mind. Why? Because if you mess that up, you mess up your picture. Of course there are plenty of post processing techniques that can adjust the exposure, but we're not discussing that in this blog. Besides, you should never shoot with the intention of fixing your picture in post. That's being lazy! Use post for other things! Try as much as possible to get the most while you shoot.

What is exposure?

In very basic terms, exposure is the quantity of light coming into your camera to determine the balance of your picture: either it's perfectly balanced or well exposed, over-exposed (too bright) or under-exposed (too dark). Of course, there are ways to control your exposure, thus the importance of shooting on manual mode. To better understand how the camera works, imagine if it were your eyes. When you're in a room or outdoors and there's a lot of light, your pupils will naturally constrict to block the light from coming in. You might squint, or perhaps wear sunglasses. Inversely, when you're in low light conditions, your pupils will dilate to allow more light to go through. Same thing when you're using a camera. Depending on the lighting conditions you're going to want to permit or restrict the light from coming in. How? There are three ways to adjust your camera's settings to get the best possible exposure for your pictures and I'll try as much as possible to spare the technicalities and keep it simple enough so that you understand how things work and what your options can be when taking a picture.

Aperture

Aperture is controlled by your lens. In the example given above, this would be your eye! Basically it's a hole or an opening through which the light will pass. It is measured in f-stops.

Smaller f-stop = bigger opening (wide aperture) = more light,

Bigger f-stop = smaller opening (narrow aperture) = less light.

Besides controlling how much light to let through, your aperture is also important because it plays a determining role in how your picture's focus will appear. If you want a picture that is focused all around (i.e. landscape) you'll need a narrow aperture. If you're shooting a portrait or a product and looking for that blurry background, you'll need a wide aperture.

Aperture: f4. Sharp and focused subject. Blurry background Aperture: f11. Sharp and focused all around

Shutter speed

The shutter is that button you press to take a picture. It's the "gatekeeper". That one button decides if the light will go through or not. Every time you press that button. your camera's shutter will open and close allowing the light to cross through to your sensor that captures the picture. Since you are now on manual mode you can select the speed at which all this will happen. So basically, on a bright sunny day, you're going to want a quick shutter speed to avoid over exposing your shot. If, however, you're indoors and the room isn't well lit, you'll want more light to enter your camera and therefore you'll select a slower shutter speed. Shutter speeds are calculated in fractions of a second, but like I promised, I won't bore you with technicalities. Practice using the different speeds and in time you'll know what shutter speed to use for every condition.

ISO

The ISO basically determines the sensitivity of your sensor to the light coming onto it.

Low ISO = less sensitivity = clearer image

High ISO = high sensitivity = noisy image (grainy image)

All in all, if you want the clearest image possible, you'll need a low ISO (low light) so you'll need to adjust either the aperture or shutter speed to allow more light to come in and balance your exposure. If you're going for a grainier picture, you'll need a high ISO (more light) and therefore you'll need to reduce the light coming through your aperture or shutter.

Personally I hate having to adjust my ISO because I prefer all my pictures to be as sharp as possible. See, for me, this is the kind of thing I would adjust in post processing. But sometimes, you have no choice! And it's crucial to know that adjusting your ISO is an option.

As you can see these three elements are constantly juggled to find the perfect balance in your image. Thankfully, every camera now comes with an exposure meter that you can see either through your viewfinder or on your LCD screen when composing your shot. That pretty much tells you if your picture will be under exposed (indicator is towards the left), well exposed (indicator is in the middle), or over exposed (indicator is towards the right).

Composition matters

I can literally write an entire blog on composition, but for this time, we'll stick to the main rules of composition. Consider these more like guidelines that will get you to start thinking before clicking. Photography is about observing and when you also have these guidelines on your mind, you'll already know if what you're seeing is worth photographing.

Rule of thirds

You cannot even remotely consider taking photography seriously without understanding the rule of thirds. In fact, this is so elementary that most cameras today offer the option to display the rule of thirds grid either in your viewfinder or on your camera's LCD screen. Imagine taking a photo and drawing a tic-tac-toe sign with every line at equal distance from the edges. Basically you'd get two vertical lines and two horizontal lines, dividing your photo into nine equal squares or rectangles. That's your rule of thirds grid! Many studies have shown that by positioning your subject or the main elements of your image along those lines or at the intersecting points of that grid, you guide your eyes to better and more naturally visualize the image. Basically, you make the image more pleasant for people to see.

Subject is situated on the last third of the image. (Along the imaginary vertical tic-tac-toe line)

Leading lines

So now you know that your brain processes an image a certain way. What if you can find something to photograph that has natural lines that help guide your eyes even more into the picture? Those are leading lines and they can be subtle or obvious, straight or curvy, diagonal or circular, etc. In any case they definitely enhance your composition.

The railway (leading lines) directs the eyes to the main subject at the center of the image

Viewpoint

Every good photographer has one constant question on his/her mind: "What's the best way to take this shot?". I guarantee that if you put a good photographer in a room where you only see boring things, he/she will find a way to take a good looking photo. Like I said earlier, it's all about observation. You might walk in a room and see a guitar sitting up against the wall and think "bah nothing here...let's move along". But what if you saw that same guitar from a different angle? Challenge yourself daily to think of different ways to shoot objects or anything that you would otherwise find useless to photograph. Expand your curiosity explore different options.

Shoot with purpose

Let's sum it up! We went over the different elements that serve to balance your image and give you the optimal exposure and we have a better understanding of the importance of composition and framing your picture the right way. The important thing now is to stat thinking before shooting! Don't just take out your camera and start shooting anything and everything! Look. Observe. How's your lighting? Is there anything interesting to photograph that can convey a message, tell a story, pique someone's curiosity or just simply have a wow effect. How can you frame your shot to enhance your composition? Can you move in closer? Or perhaps move further away? Maybe get low or choose a more elevated position? Yes these are all things that I think about and you should too! You will certainly see the difference in your pictures.