DIY Centre:

Taking Better Photos

A whole industry has developed around offering photographic advice and will I not bore you by repeating their expert opinions here, there are thousands of books, magazines and websites worthy of doing that. What I have to offer is a few tips that can get anyone taking better pictures in under five minutes.

Firstly, expect one good photo out of fifty, so take as many as time will permit and make them all different. Thankfully, digital cameras and cheap memory have made this technique available to everyone. In itself, doing this will force you to take pictures from unusual angles and with different camera settings, one of which, hopefully, will be that masterpiece you’ve been trying for.

Secondly, try and provide the viewer of the photograph with something they could NOT see normally. This sounds a bit strange, but think of close-up shots in film and TV, they attract our attention because we don’t normally see people at such a close distance. So when thinking of fifty different shots try high and low angles, vary the distance from camera to subject, blur or sharpen backgrounds with exposure settings, choose irregular times of day (early or late), and anything else you can think of.

Thirdly, use a secondary light source to lighten shadows when taking close-ups; particularly of faces, babies and other small objects. Shadows can be used, and even darkened, in wide landscapes with great results, but the human face rarely benefits from this effect. If you are using the sun as the primary light source use a reflector or an electric lamp with a blue gel. A cheap reflector can be made by spraying silver paint on a sheet of cardboard, the porosity of the cardboard creates a matt finish so soft light is reflected. Heat resistant blue gels for sunlight can be bought cheaply from studio or camera lighting shops, but beware regular blue cellophane will melt and burn under a hot globe. If you are shooting indoors you can use a sun lit window and a standing lamp, two lamps with different wattage globes, or position one lamp closer to the subject than the other. You’ll have to experiment to get the shadows just right, but the idea is not to remove them completely, rather lighten them so facial features can be seen through the shading.

And finally, try and capture action. This doesn’t necessarily mean making the subject do something, but rather composing the scene with a visual link between a primary and secondary subjects. For example, a close-up head shot next to the edge of a bus stop sign implies action, as does someone sitting on a couch if a remote control is highlighted by centring it in the frame, and someone waiting to cross a street needs a blurred car bonnet at the bottom corner of the picture to get an eye catching picture.