In this age of digital cameras, you have probably thought that you can just point and shoot and out will appear a great shot.Hold on, don’t go 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’d love to share with you some great advice in photography to help improve your skills. These tips are coming from years of experience as a San Diego wedding photographer.These tips are about using lighting and they will be some of the best advice and keys to your success in taking great photos.
First tip in lighting. Now if you are taking shots outdoors during the day, natural sunlight provides some of the best lighting possible. 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 will wash out the face details while 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.But there will be those times and instances when you want different angles to get those shadows into the shots.
Now that we have addressed the shots during the day, what about those night shots?
The key to taking photos at night is turning off your flash. Of course if it is pitch black you will need it, but for times when there is lighting, you want to use the lighting that is around, but you have to make sure you set your shutter speeds slower to let in enough light.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’re going to be able to capture the golden lighting you won’t find during any other part of the day.
There you have it.Probably the biggest tip in taking beautiful photos is to make use of the natural lighting around you. 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.
Tags: general, photographer, photography