In this age of digital cameras, you have probably thought that you can just point and shoot and out will appear a great shot. Not so fast. The truth is you can have the top of the line digital camera, but if you don’t know what you are doing, you will take lousy shots.
Well, I would like to share with you some great tips on improving your digital photography skills. These tips are coming from years of experience as a San Diego wedding photographer. These tips all involve lighting and they are going to be some of the biggest keys to your success in taking your photos.
First great tip in regards to lighting.Now if the shots you are taking are outdoors during the day, some of the best lighting possible will be the natural sunlight. Now you are probably thinking, “that’s easy, when you are a San Diego photographer since it is always shiny there”, when in actuality really bright sunlight can cast harsh shadows.Or it could blur the details of faces when the sun is overhead.
Overall, you are going to want to take most of the shots with the sun behind you.This eliminates any harsh shawows from effecting your shot from the sun.There will be some times when you want to take shots from different angles when you do try to get some shadows into the shots.
Now that we have tackled the day shots, what if you are taking shots at night?
The key to taking photos at night is turning off your flash.Of course if it is absolutely dark with no light you wil need it, but for times when there is some lighting, use the lighting around you, but make sure the shutter speeds are slow enough to let light in.Another thing, make sure you keep a steady hand when you take your shot or you can blur the photos.Doing these tricks should make a significantly dramatic difference when you take night shots.
The final tips to using lighting for great shots is using the golden hour. There is something photographers call the “golden hour” or magic hour, and that time is sunrise and sunset.
These times of day you wll be able to capture great shots because you will get the more warmer and inviting colors.You’ll be able to get that golden lighting that isn’t available during any other time of day.
There you have it. Probably the biggest key in taking greatshots is to make sure you take advantage of the natural lighting. Knowing what techniques to use for different parts of the day, or just scheduling a photo shoots to capture those times of day will help you become an excellent photographer.