I've been a photographer for a little over a year now and I feel like I've come a long way from where I started. However, I know I still have A LOT to learn as. In this blog post I would like to share with you the resources I've found to be the most essential in helping me grow as a beginner photographer. I've divided the sections into shooting tips, post-processing tips for Lightroom, and then bonus tips. If after reading this post you have any questions regarding any of these tips or if you have any tips that have helped you grow, leave me a comment!
Shooting Tips
Choose Your AF Point. Use this for more accurate auto-focusing.
Use Back-Button Focus. It's a better focusing method and I use it 100% of the time.
Learn How to Read Your Histogram. This will make it way easier to judge your photo's exposure no matter the conditions you're shooting in. Your LCD can also be very misleading, so knowing how to read your histogram is extremely important for properly exposed images.
Use ETTR (Exposing To The Right). This will allow you to pull the most detail out of your photo.
Set Your Aperture/Shutter Speed First, Then ISO. Depending on what you want your photo to show or what you want your composition to look like, set your aperture or shutter speed first. Only use ISO as a last resort if you're not getting enough light from the settings of your aperture and shutter speed.
Use The Reciprocal Rule For Sharper Images. I usually use the reciprocal rule and then double it just to be safe (I have shaky hands).
Shoot During Golden Hour. The lighting is beautiful.
Understand Your Camera's Metering Modes. This will help you understand how your camera is determining the exposure via its built in light meter.
Use A Reflector. Using a reflector is a great way to change the lighting of your photo for cheap. Check out my blog post on reflectors.
Plan Your Shoot. In my opinion, the best way to plan for a shoot is to use desktop or mobile apps. My favorite app to use on my computer is The Photographer's Ephemeris (free) and my favorite mobile app that I use is Photo Pills ($10). Both apps allow me to plan shoots based around times of great natural light.
Stabilize Yourself. I use a few of these and they make the difference between a photo that is tack sharp and one that it just a tad bit blurry.
Compose Your Shot. Take the time to think about what you want to include/exclude in your frame.
Shoot Panoramas. They're easier than you think. 99% of the time you don't need a tripod as long as you do a decent job of over lapping your shots (overlap half of the frame to be safe) and holding the camera level.
Take Your Flash Off of Your Camera. Direct flash can be flat and boring, so take your flash off of your camera to get more interesting shots.
For Max Sharpness With Your Lens, Shoot Between f/5.6-f/16. I've found this to be the sweet spot for getting the sharpest images.
Shoot At Your Lowest Native ISO. Your photos will be way cleaner in terms of noise.
Understand What Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO do, aka the "Exposure Triangle."
Learn How Compression Affects Composition.
Long Exposure Hacks. There's the method of using welding glass and then there's the method of combining multiple short exposures in-camera or in Photoshop to achieve silky smooth motion.
Invest In Good Glass. Lenses are a lot more important than your camera body, so make sure that you allocate most of your investment in photography to some really good lenses. Some really great lenses to look into are the Sigma Art Series; some people prefer these third party lenses to the Canon versions of the lenses. I'm a big fan of both Canon and Sony gear, so I will most likely be using both camera systems in the future. Sigma has solved the dilemma faced by many photographers who want to switch from Canon camera bodies to Sony camera bodies by coming out with the Sigma MC-11 lens adapter that will allow Canon lenses to be used with full auto capabilities on Sony bodies.
Shoot With Primes. Primes tend to be a lot sharper and faster (in terms of aperture) than zoom lenses, and primes also force you to really think about composition.
Ask Friends If They'll Model For You. This is a great way to get experience and try new photography techniques. Plus, they might use your photo on their social media sites, so that's a great way to get yourself out there.
Calibrate Your Lenses. If you're spending thousands of dollars on lenses, please take the time to calibrate your lenses. Most lenses back or front focus straight out of the box, so without calibrating your lenses via AF fine-tuning you will probably have soft images even though it may not be noticeable. Do yourself a favor and take the time to correct that issue, you'll be glad you did. Personally, I use the SpyderLensCal, but there are other ways of doing it (for free).
Choose Your AF Point. Use this for more accurate auto-focusing.
Use Back-Button Focus. It's a better focusing method and I use it 100% of the time.
Learn How to Read Your Histogram. This will make it way easier to judge your photo's exposure no matter the conditions you're shooting in. Your LCD can also be very misleading, so knowing how to read your histogram is extremely important for properly exposed images.
Use ETTR (Exposing To The Right). This will allow you to pull the most detail out of your photo.
Set Your Aperture/Shutter Speed First, Then ISO. Depending on what you want your photo to show or what you want your composition to look like, set your aperture or shutter speed first. Only use ISO as a last resort if you're not getting enough light from the settings of your aperture and shutter speed.
Use The Reciprocal Rule For Sharper Images. I usually use the reciprocal rule and then double it just to be safe (I have shaky hands).
Shoot During Golden Hour. The lighting is beautiful.
Understand Your Camera's Metering Modes. This will help you understand how your camera is determining the exposure via its built in light meter.
Use A Reflector. Using a reflector is a great way to change the lighting of your photo for cheap. Check out my blog post on reflectors.
Plan Your Shoot. In my opinion, the best way to plan for a shoot is to use desktop or mobile apps. My favorite app to use on my computer is The Photographer's Ephemeris (free) and my favorite mobile app that I use is Photo Pills ($10). Both apps allow me to plan shoots based around times of great natural light.
Stabilize Yourself. I use a few of these and they make the difference between a photo that is tack sharp and one that it just a tad bit blurry.
Compose Your Shot. Take the time to think about what you want to include/exclude in your frame.
Shoot Panoramas. They're easier than you think. 99% of the time you don't need a tripod as long as you do a decent job of over lapping your shots (overlap half of the frame to be safe) and holding the camera level.
Take Your Flash Off of Your Camera. Direct flash can be flat and boring, so take your flash off of your camera to get more interesting shots.
For Max Sharpness With Your Lens, Shoot Between f/5.6-f/16. I've found this to be the sweet spot for getting the sharpest images.
Shoot At Your Lowest Native ISO. Your photos will be way cleaner in terms of noise.
Understand What Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO do, aka the "Exposure Triangle."
Learn How Compression Affects Composition.
Long Exposure Hacks. There's the method of using welding glass and then there's the method of combining multiple short exposures in-camera or in Photoshop to achieve silky smooth motion.
Invest In Good Glass. Lenses are a lot more important than your camera body, so make sure that you allocate most of your investment in photography to some really good lenses. Some really great lenses to look into are the Sigma Art Series; some people prefer these third party lenses to the Canon versions of the lenses. I'm a big fan of both Canon and Sony gear, so I will most likely be using both camera systems in the future. Sigma has solved the dilemma faced by many photographers who want to switch from Canon camera bodies to Sony camera bodies by coming out with the Sigma MC-11 lens adapter that will allow Canon lenses to be used with full auto capabilities on Sony bodies.
Shoot With Primes. Primes tend to be a lot sharper and faster (in terms of aperture) than zoom lenses, and primes also force you to really think about composition.
Ask Friends If They'll Model For You. This is a great way to get experience and try new photography techniques. Plus, they might use your photo on their social media sites, so that's a great way to get yourself out there.
Calibrate Your Lenses. If you're spending thousands of dollars on lenses, please take the time to calibrate your lenses. Most lenses back or front focus straight out of the box, so without calibrating your lenses via AF fine-tuning you will probably have soft images even though it may not be noticeable. Do yourself a favor and take the time to correct that issue, you'll be glad you did. Personally, I use the SpyderLensCal, but there are other ways of doing it (for free).
Post-Processing Tips in Lightroom
Set Up an Import Preset. If you ever adjust certain sliders or enable buttons every single time you import photos into Lightroom, you should consider setting up an import preset in Lightroom to speed up your work flow.
Use Different Aspect Ratios. Try different aspect ratios for different effects. In Lightroom you can input your crop ratio manually, or you can choose one the presets. My most used aspect ratios are: 3:2, 16:9, and 2.35:1 (for that very cinematic feel).
Use Lightroom, Then Work Your Way to Photoshop. Lightroom is less daunting than Photoshop because it has a simpler user interface, but it is still extremely powerful. I'd say I do about 99% of my editing in Lightroom and save my heavy duty editing for Photoshop.
Clean Up That Noise. Luminance noise doesn't bother me as much as color noise, so watch the video below to learn how to clean up your photos that are full of noise.
Get Rid of That Chromatic Aberration.
Lightroom Keyboard Shortcuts. Here's a link to a very helpful article on some of Lightroom's best shortcuts.
Use Tone Curves. Tone curves are an extremely powerful tool that can be used for things like adding contract to a photos. I almost exclusively use tone curves for adding contrast now.
Use Vibrance Instead of Saturation. Vibrance allows you to increase the saturation of an image while still preserving skin tones pretty well.
Use Adjustment Brush to Make Details Pop. Instead of applying sharpening to your entire photo via the sharpening slider, try using a brush and boosting the sharpening to make certain areas sharp (for example, a person's eyes) and not the entire image.
Use Gradient Filters to Balance Exposure. If you have a very bright sky that you want to bring detail back into, try applying a gradient filter with an exposure setting of -2 to bring out the details in a bright sky.
Use Split Toning. This will allow you to add certain colors in the shadows/highlights of an image, so use these sliders to make an image more interesting. For example, in a dark and dramatic scene maybe try adding blue to the shadows of your photo.
Always Use Profile Corrections. In one of the drop down menus towards the bottom of the slider panel there is an option to apply profile corrects. What this will allow you to do is fix any distortion or vignetting caused by your lens that shows up in your photo. I always use the profile corrections.
Moderation. Although you can edit a photo how ever you like, that doesn't mean you should. I'd recommend doing everything in moderation. So don't go too crazy on the sliders in Lightroom because a photo usually falls apart when you over-edit it. However, that's just my opinion. Edit a photo until you like it.
Bonus Tips
Read Blogs. My favorite thing to do at the start of a new week is to go to SLR Lounge or FStoppers on my phone, fill my browser completely full with articles that catch my eye, and then I read them during the week whenever I have down time like when I'm waiting for class to start or I'm eating lunch. You're on your phone anyways; you might as well be doing something productive!
Shoot With Other Photographers. I've found that I always learn so much when I shoot with others.
Ask For Constructive Criticism. This is important. Ask others what they like and dislike about your photos and make sure to get an explanation for each side! Nobody benefits from "good pic" or "this is bad." Ask for reasons.
Study Other Photographers. They're everywhere. If you don't know any photographers personally, go to their social media pages and leave them some questions, most of them will be happy to help someone looking for tips.
Look At Metadata on Flickr/500px. Maybe one of the most asked questions asked in photography: "what settings should I use?" Truth is, there are no universal settings for a photo because every scene is different and everyone's style will vary as well. However, if you'd like to see how someone shot a photo, go to Flickr or 500px and take a look at the photo's metadata that shows the settings used for the photo. This is also a great tip if you're looking to buy a lens and want to see the look that a particular lens will give you.
Location Scout: Use Google Maps and Flickr's Map. Go to Flickr to search your location to see what kind of photos have been taken where you are in order to draw inspiration form others. Once you've found a location, search the general area (for example, a road) to see what the location looks like around it. I used this tip my first time location scouting for a place to view the Milky Way and I found an awesome look out point that I couldn't fine on Google images.
Shoot What You Like, Not What Others Like. Pretty self-explanatory, but seriously, photograph what you want and are interested in, not what is popular.
Optimize Your Photo's Dimensions For Social Media. One tool that I've been using recently is Landscape. This tool allows me to upload my photos and choose the social platforms I want to upload them to and then it re sizes them for me to best fit that site's photo dimensions.
Go shoot! Very cliche, but it's true. You won't learn anything if you don't get out there and make mistakes so you can grow from them!
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