How to take photos that you love
If you follow these tips, I promise that your photos will be tangibly better in moments. Permanently better in weeks. It’s all in how you think about taking a photo.
This is a tour of the principles and techniques I use and love.
Practising, experimenting and noticing is what photography is all about. Go, enjoy and play - it’s meant to be fun!
Let’s Begin
Like every good activity, first, we need a:
Checklist/
You will need
Any kind of camera. For our purposes, your phone is ideal- it’s with you the whole time (you never know when a photo will need to be taken). I’ll assume for this piece, that we are all using our phone cameras.
To set up:
Make sure the 3x3 grid is turned on - Instructions to do this for Apple / Google / Samsung
Turn off that flash forever (a phone photo has never been improved with a flash)
Turn off the fake shutter sound too please.
Practice/
I still practice daily - just looking around me - this image was taken just because I loved the streetlights on the bare branches.
Spend 5 minutes a day being ‘visually curious’. (Sorry, I can’t think of a better way to describe this.)
So what does it mean practically?
if you’re nipping to the corner shop, on your commute or you have 5 quiet minutes at home. Wherever you are:
Notice what catches your eye.
What makes you smile?
How do those colours work together?
How is the light falling?
What happens if you move to a different place but focus on the same thing?
I challenge you to take at least one photo in that five minutes - just of something that caught your eye.
Do it everyday.
This will make the biggest difference to your photography- greater than all the other tips put together.
You might be tempted to skip it.
Don’t. Everyone has 5 minutes a day.
Guidelines for the exercise:
Do this when you don’t need to chat to someone else - you’ll need your focus.
There is beauty to be found everywhere when you start to look.
It can be tiny stuff - like layers of peeling paint or the funny way that someone has hung their door numbers. It can be trees in the street lights. Or reflections on the pavement on a rainy day or pools of sunlight indoors.
The less conventionally beautiful the place > the more you look > the more beautiful the results.
You’re not doing this to make a work of art - you’re doing this to start to figure out what you love, to train your eyes to look, and then learn how you’d like to capture it.
It won’t come instantly and it might feel a bit awkward to begin with, but I still do this each day. As I write this, I am impatient to go out with my camera, on my own for a few hours as soon as this blog is posted - nothing makes me happier. There is always something make you smile when you start to look.
Just begin. In 30 days - you’ll be well on your way to knowing what you love and how to shape your pictures.
Okay. Onto the tips you came here for.
How to photograph moments you love
1/ Pause and watch
Before you pick up your camera, take a moment ask yourself - what is interesting here? Seriously. What’s in the background? What do you want to keep and what do you want to remove from the photo. Move yourself to try out different angles. This is where your practice (above) will pay off.
Rule of Thirds: this picture has three points on the intersection of the grid lines which are interesting. Often just placing your subject on one of the four will be perfect.
2/ The Rule of Thirds
You turned on your grid function, didn’t you? Great. If not, go back to the beginning.
With the grid, our screen is divided into a grid of nine equal parts with two horizontal and two vertical lines. If you put the important elements in your photo on the intersections of these lines- like the main subject or horizon. This helps create a more engaging image.
2/ Zoom (with your feet)
Getting closer to your subject is nearly always the answer (<cough> maintain personal space!).
Don’t use your phones zoom - it’s really just cropping the image and that’s why it gets grainy.
So get up and move. It’ll make a huge difference.
3/ Get to their eye level
If your subject is small (I’m thinking of kids and pets), this has the effect of engaging you in their world. Unconsciously it’s saying ‘this is what it’s like to be me’. Your photo will be better for it.
4/ Choose big emotions
Genuine emotions carry straight through to the photo and onto the viewer. It doesn’t always need to be a smile though - laughter, concentration… Sometimes contemplation and even sadness make memorable photos.
(For candid photos- please don’t tell them to smile for the photo. The magic will evaporate before the words have left your mouth)
5/ If your subject is uncomfortable with being photographed,
Check in with them - not when they’re mid-flow but but before.
I like the approach by photographer, Michael Johnston
"My son was twelve or thirteen when he announced that he didn’t want me to take his picture anymore.
Kids are people, too, and their feelings and wishes should be respected and considered;
I’ve also learned that I like having permission when I photograph.
So I talked with him and made a proposal:
Photography is my thing, I said, and
I wanted a record of what he looked like;
would he agree to cooperate with me for three minutes, five times a year?
Just fifteen minutes.
it was too reasonable for him to refuse.
I was strict with myself about never taking his picture spontaneously, but when I really wanted a photograph I’d ask for my three minutes and make a quick portrait.
I now have at least one nice picture of him from each of his teenage years.”
6/ Put your camera away
Taking photos can remove you from being fully present. So a gentle reminder to take your photos - and then get back to being with the people you love.
Last thoughts…
Practice and play are your best friends when working out how to take photos that you love.
When you experiment with the different ideas, your photos will get better!
A final thought is to remember that having shot a beautiful photo isn’t an end point. It does beg to come to life as a tangible print.
20 Photos offers Hero Prints, Gift Cards and our namesake - 20 Photos.