OR TURN THEM TO SNAPSHOTS
I mentioned in my last story (incase you missed it) but does it mean all the time ? No way !! It was a sunny day and when I saw right outside my window I saw people playing baseball, kids having fun in open showers, beautiful green grass & what best I could explain for an awesome weather. I couldn’t think of doing anything else except capturing the moment. Without a second thought I put on the shoes, wear a hat, grabbed my camera, put memory card in, formatted it, opened the lens cap, picked up the car keys and get going. I was so thrilled to do something unique that day and I did.
Captured some sports with fast shutter, Panning with slow shutter, portraits with large aperture etc. While I was into my fun, a high school kid (certainly passionate about photography) approached me to show him my pictures (which I did) and asked me what 5 things he can avoid to start taking better pictures. His question was simple but I had hundreds of answers to it and didn’t know how to filter top 5 for him. So, I gave him the visual examples with these 5 pictures:
ADD DISTRACTIONS
The first & top most way to ruin a photograph is to add distractions. I shot the picture below by standing right behind this tree when she was crossing it. Yes, it indeed was a panning shot, without the distraction which would have been a great imagery to show sense of motion, speed, art & nature.
AVOID RULE OF THIRDS
Though there will be times when avoiding this rule will result beautiful pictures but not always. As the name says “RULE of thirds” so consider it as the photography rule. Here is a great blog on Rule of thirds by Darren Rowse Rule of thirds is a process to align a subject in the frame at the intersection points. This is also referred as the Visual art rule. Keeping a subject away from center adds a drama to the picture or I would say gives you space to tell a story. The picture below was shot by keeping subject in the dead center or by avoiding rule of thirds.
STOP THINKING A LOT, GO OUT AND PRESS THE SHUTTER
A picture is worth a 1000 words — An English Idiom
If you didn’t follow me in my last story then here is the brilliant example. I shot this picture without thinking twice that what I want from this picture. Though, this picture tells a visual story that a kid is passionate about baseball and his style of game but will it be fair to call it a picture ? I would rather use it in my i-phone just to show the moment. I could ruin this picture by not thinking of the technical ask of the moment — High Shutter Speed or Maximum Aperture or few more players in the shot etc. I simply picked up my camera & pressed the shutter. Result, ruin the shot.
Start thinking those 1000 words
100% ZOOM — IT’S STILL TOO FAR
It’s not the equipment but the eye behind.
Owning a professional equipment doesn’t guarantee the best pictures in the world. The understanding of the equipment and it’s limitation is important. Very few shots require full zoom, may be wildlife. All others can be captured beautifully with a kit lens. Forcing a full zoom on your camera to capture an image has various limitations. Noise or Grain, chromatic aberrations, blur pictures unless you are using a tripod, special focus technique etc. I was not using a tripod while capturing this picture but was not at the full zoom too. I wanted to capture something to show that interesting kid what I am talking about. But full zoom is neither the key nor the solution. Avoid it.
LASTLY — LENS READY CAP NOT
Always take the lens cap off before you start shooting. I love black but black picture.
So, more is always less. No rules, no mantras can teach you photography unless you go out and capture bunch a lot of picture each day and analyse your own good or bad shot. Comment below and let me know what you think should be avoided and kept in mind to create great pictures ?
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