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In this day and age of digital cameras, you’ve probably heard or thought that all you have to do is push the button and great pictures magically appear. 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 are about using lighting and they will be some of the best advice and keys to your success in taking great photos.
First great tip in regards to lighting.Now if the shots you will take are going to be outdoors during the day, the natural sunlight will be 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 could blur the details of faces when the sun is overhead.
Overall, most of the shots you are going to want to take with the sun behind you.This stops any harsh shadows in your photo caused by 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 tackled the day shots, what if you are taking shots at night?
The trick to taking night shots is to turn 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.Also, stay steady when you are taking your photograph or you will cause the picture to blur.Doing these tricks should make a significantly dramatic difference when you take night shots.
The third and final tip with using lighting to capture great photos is the golden hour.Now there is a time that photographers refer to as the “golden hour” or “magic hour”, and that is during sunrise and sunset.
During these times of the day you will capture great shots that allow you to capture 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 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.