10 Tips to Take Your Photos from Good to Great
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The Tenacity 5 Team realizes many people are on or are about to go on vacation. To help—and to launch the new service in style—we have assembled Geoff Livingston's 10 tips on how to take a better photograph. We hope they will make your vacation more memorable. And do think of us the next time you need a more visual content experience for your brand. You can see a written version of this article here: http://tenacity5.com/10-tips-to-take-your-photos-from-good-to-great/
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10 Tips to Take Your Photos from Good to Great
- 1. 10 Tips to Take Your Photos from Good to Great
- 2. Take Your Summer Photos to the Next Level 2
- 3. 1) Framing Is Everything In some settings there are many eye-catching things to include in your photograph, but these can distract the viewer. Whenever possible frame your photo so that it focuses on a single subject.
- 4. 2) Don’t Take the Rule of Thirds Literally If taken literally, the rule of thirds can create formulaic photos with every subject in the dead center of the image. Break away from perfectly centered images. Consider that the eye usually moves from left to right in an image, just as it does when reading. Use lines within the photograph to lead your audience to the subject.
- 5. Another Approach to the Rule of Thirds Is to Use Layers Another option is to build layers in your composition to create a rich viewing experience. Consider this sunrise photo from Africa. The layers include a savannah foreground, the mountain middle ground, and the sun in the distance.
- 6. 3) People Are Difficult Subjects Capturing people's spirit, their true essence, is the challenge. You really need to focus on capturing them at ease, which can mean waiting and waiting for an uncanned moment. Other times you need to talk to the subject to get them to relax.
- 7. 4) Sunsets and Sunrises Are Click-Bait Sunrises and sunsets are bait for likes, favs and clicks. People love landscapes almost as much as they like dog and kitty pics.
- 8. Use a Sunrise/Sunset to Dress up a Subject This sunrise image taken for Audi turns a mundane methane gas pump into a much more interesting subject. See how you can frame your subject within the context of a sunrise or sunset to make for more attention-grabbing photos.
- 9. 5) Rich Vibrant Color Is a Technique One critical aspect of color is exposure. When you shoot manually, you can choose what to expose in your photo. So when I take a sunset or sunrise pic, I expose for the sun or the most colorful part of the sky.
- 10. Editing for Color In Lightroom, open the highlights to reduce glare and pull out the rich color. Adjust whites and blacks accordingly. From there, normal edits to vibrancy and contrast finish the job. Also open the shadows in Lightroom to expose the foreground or other dark areas.
- 11. 6) Edit Your Photos There are purists who say photos shouldn't be "photoshopped" or edited. They are wrong. Some of the most iconic photos were significantly altered in the darkroom.
- 12. Editing: From Good to Great This Great Falls picture was powerful as a raw capture. Editing it made it become a top ten photo on Flickr the day it was published.
- 13. 7) Use Filters Mindfully Whether you create presets of your standard workflow, buy presets or use a tool like Intensify, you are using filters. When you edit photos using presets, it's an attempt to make them better. Generally, people like the photos more.
- 14. Use Filters with Intent While haphazard filters produce a few diamonds, the end product is rarely what would be considered photography. Differentiation with intent. It’s an opportunity to distinguish yourself with strong, one-of-a-kind images.
- 15. 8) Black and White Works A good color photograph almost always makes for a good black and white photo. But so does a photo with blown out highlights, bad light (for example, your atypical middle of the day shot) or muted tones.
- 16. 9) A Take-Away from the Minimalist Crowd Minimalist photographers encourage editing as a touch up only, instead focusing on the capture. They’ll edit in LightRoom, but just enough to make clean, crisp photographs.
- 17. Minimal Edits for Authenticism 80% of the work on this photo was done in the Basic LightRoom panel. I opened the shadows and reduced the highlights. I sharpened the image and punched up the color contrast. Then I enabled lens correction. And that was it.
- 18. 10) If It’s Not Sharp, Don’t Post It It's tempting to post a good capture with a subject that you like even though it's a little fuzzy. Don't do it. The subject needs to be in focus. A fuzzy pic is not a good pic, no matter how strong the subject and composition is.
- 19. The Exceptions to the Rule There are only two exceptions to the rule. The first is sentimental value. If that's the case, cool. Memories are precious. The other is if you are intentionally blurring or distorting a photograph. In that case, go for it. Art is art.
- 20. Questions? Visit us at tenacity5.com Image by Aaron Squires 20
Editor's Notes
- Tenacity5 creates content for almost every single one of our clients. And almost every single one of our clients asks our founder and resident photographer Geoff Livingston to take photos as part of that content. So we listened and have added visual storytelling to our services (http://tenacity5.com/services/). You can see our portfolio here (http://tenacity5.com/photography-portfolio/). We realize many people are on or are about to go on vacation. To help—and to launch the new service in style—we have assembled Geoff’s 10 tips on how to take a better photograph. We hope they will make your vacation more memorable. And do think of us the next time you need a more visual content experience for your brand.
- You can edit a photo all you want, but it's easier to produce a good photo if you start with a solid, original capture. Find your story and focus on it. In some settings there are many eye-catching things to include in your photograph, but these can distract the viewer. Whenever possible frame your photo so that it focuses on a single subject. Leave out as many distractions as you can. If you can’t frame the photo while capturing it, then crop and if necessary (or possible) edit out distractions.
- The rule of thirds</a> is helpful to new photographers. It suggests framing your picture by dividing it in thirds vertically and horizontally. You then frame your subject in the middle square – usually along one of the edges -- and capture the shot. If taken literally, the rule of thirds can create formulaic photos with every subject in the dead center of the image. Break away from perfectly centered images. Consider that the eye usually moves from left to right in an image, just as it does when reading. Use lines within the photograph to lead your audience to the subject.
- Another option is to build layers in your composition to create a rich viewing experience. Consider this sunrise photo from Africa. The layers include a savannah foreground, the mountain middle ground, and the sun in the distance.
- Photographing people is hard. I am not talking about the smiley pics you see on Instagram. In many ways those are easy, but they don't strike me as good or sincere. In fact, I see most smiling pics as fake, unless they are in the moment. Capturing people's spirit, their true essence, is the challenge. You really need to focus on capturing them at ease, which can mean waiting and waiting for an uncanned moment. Other times you need to talk to the subject to get them to relax. In addition, there is much to learn with retouching faces, but as a starting point, be careful not to make someone look like an over-glossed cover image for a bad magazine. Fake still looks fake, no matter how in-the-moment the original shot.
- Sunrises and sunsets are bait for likes, favs and clicks. People love landscapes almost as much as they like dog and kitty pics. Sunrises and sunsets are the ultimate landscape, and with good reason. A great sunset only lasts a few, precious minutes, so showing a subject in this light always makes for a more captivating picture.
- This sunrise image taken for Audi turns a mundane methane gas pump into a much more interesting subject. See how you can frame your subject within the context of a sunrise or sunset to make for more attention-grabbing photos.
- People remark on the color I get in my photos, particularly in the ones of skies. They often assume the shots are HDR. But usually only one in every 25 photos I post uses HDR processing. In reality, a large part of rich, vibrant coloring has to do with the way the photo is shot and edited. One critical aspect of color is exposure. When you shoot manually, you can choose what to expose in your photo. So when I take a sunset or sunrise pic, I expose for the sun or the most colorful part of the sky. Remember, a camera is just a computer that interprets light. Most cameras offer several interpretations (e.g. Standard, Flat, Portrait, Vivid, Landscape) for the same shot. When you manually expose a shot, you help the computer by directing its function rather than letting it make a best guess.
- On the editing side, HDR exposes for the sky, takes a second or third photo and exposes other aspects in the scene, and then blends. This process produces rich color and detail throughout the photo, but not everyone likes HDR, nor does every photographer have the patience to blend the images. When I expose a single shot for the sky, I open the highlights to reduce glare and pull out the rich color. I adjust whites and blacks accordingly. From there, normal edits to vibrancy and contrast finish the job. I also open the shadows in Lightroom to expose the foreground or other dark areas. But that's not a universal approach for me. Sometimes I leave the image silhouetted as I did here.
- There are purists who say photos shouldn't be "photoshopped" or edited. They are wrong. Some of the most iconic photos were significantly altered in the darkroom.
- This Great Falls picture was powerful as a raw capture. Editing it made it become a top ten photo on Flickr the day it was published.
- Whether you create presets of your standard workflow, buy presets or use a tool like Intensify, you are using filters. I have the no filter argument, but I also know that classic photographers altered their photos in the darkroom. When you edit photos using presets, it's an attempt to make them better. Generally, people like the photos more.
- The above photo of the Ngorongoro Crater was difficult to produce. The crater had some intense light elements, with diverse shadows and light. There were cloud walls on the rim and to the left, which somewhat filtered the sunset. The final product involved merging three photos (one to the left, one in the middle and one to the right, but not an HDR overlay) in Photoshop to get the right exposure across the crater, significant time in Lightroom, and about three different Intensify filters brushed on parts of the photo. The real issue happens when filters are used mindlessly and without thought to the message being communicated. While haphazard filters produce a few diamonds, the end product is rarely what would be considered photography. However, it's what makes people happy when they post to Instagram or Facebook or whatever. This differentiation gives photographers an opportunity to distinguish themselves with strong, one-of-a-kind images. I believe a photo is a person's interpretation of something they witnessed, realistic or abstract. Each photo is a unique experience. Because of that, I never use the exact same edit or a universal filter for touch-ups.
- A good color photograph almost always makes for a good black and white photo. But so does a photo with blown out highlights, bad light (for example, your atypical middle of the day shot) or muted tones. I try not to produce photos that are shot in mid-day, but sometimes you don't have a choice. Often I produce these shots as black and white works. The above shot is the bottom side of the loop train in Chicago. It was shot in the morning blue hour before dawn and came out looking dusty and blue. So I went black and white. The editing was an HDR edit in Photomatix using three exposures merged on top of each other. I significantly boosted the contrast and gave the photo a vignette to make it more brooding. As Serge Ramelli notes, going over the top in black and white almost always works.
- Minimalist photographers encourage editing as a touch up only, instead focusing on the capture. They’ll edit in LightRoom, but just enough to>make clean, crisp photographs. My thoughts follow theirs. Make a great image, and when possible, do so with as little editing as possible.
- This dawn image features very little editing. Per the minimalist link, 80% of the work was done in the Basic LightRoom panel. I opened the shadows and reduced the highlights. I sharpened the image and punched up the color contrast. Then I enabled lens correction. And that was it. Do only what you think is necessary to create a good image. Follow your gut instinct. Every photo doesn't have to be an over-wrought 500 Pixels gem.
- It's tempting to post a good capture with a subject that you like even though it's a little fuzzy. Don't do it. The subject needs to be in focus. Yes, there are photos that use fuzzy continuation or depth of field and bokeh, and they make for great images. But all those photos have a subject clearly in focus. A fuzzy pic is not a good pic, no matter how strong the subject and composition is.
- There are only two exceptions to the rule. The first is sentimental value. If that's the case, cool. Memories are precious. The other is if you are intentionally blurring or distorting a photograph. In that case, go for it. Art is art.