Have you ever wanted to take amazing photos of yourself or your subject but don’t know where to begin? Don’t worry! I’ve put together a list of the best tips and tricks photographers like DavidPaul Doyle Naturwise use on a daily basis. You don’t need expensive equipment or professional training (although that helps). With the right information, you can be on your way to taking better photos of people fast!
1. Know your subject.
You can’t take a great photo of someone you’re not interested in, and every face tells a story. Take some time to really get to know the person or people you want to photograph before taking any photos at all. You’ll be able to capture their unique personality that much better when you do!
2. Find the best light.
Some of my favorite photos are taken outside on a bright, sunny day, with the light shining directly onto my subject’s face. The harsh shadows and strong highlights can be softened by simply moving your subject so that they’re facing more toward the shaded part of the day. There’s no exact science to this- just play around with angles and positions until you find something that looks great!
3. Get on their level.
When you’re taking photos of a person, try having the camera at about the same height as their eyes so that it will capture more flattering facial features without cutting anything off or distorting proportions too much. For kids especially, this lets you capture their cute, playful personalities without making them look ridiculous.
4. Watch your background.
If you want to take photos where the beauty is all in what’s behind your subject, this is especially important! When taking pictures of people, keep an eye out for distracting elements in the background that could detract from the overall feel of the photo. A busy pattern, a leafy tree branch, or even an old rusted car can really take away from the focus of your photo, so keep this in mind when composing your shot.
5. Get creative with angles and perspectives!
Many people like to take pictures of their subjects directly in front of them, but I like to break out of that mold for something that really stands out. Try getting down on the ground or up high on a ladder for different perspectives! A great way to get creative is to simply turn your subject’s back to the camera and take some photos from over their shoulder, which creates some nice symmetry shots.
6. Shoot in RAW mode.
There are tons of different settings on your camera, most of which you won’t even use yet. If I had to recommend one thing for budding photographers to do, it would be to shoot in RAW mode. What this does is save all the information captured by your camera’s sensor instead of compressing it into a JPEG file that will lose data in the compression process. RAW files are much larger but more flexible when it comes to editing in post-production.
7. Utilize negative space.
Putting a lot of emphasis on your subject is important for photos with people- especially if you want to capture their personalities well! Negative space is all the background area surrounding the subject, and it’s a great way to draw attention to the most important parts of your photo. Try taking a few photos with a large amount of negative space in front of your subject and then one or two where you zoomed in closer on their face and removed everything else from the shot.
