5 Things: To Think About When Taking Pictures

It is no secret that I LOVE to take pictures. I almost always carry my camera with me everywhere I go, I never want to miss out on a great photo opportunity. Photography is something I have enjoyed my entire life. Growing up, my dad was always taking pictures and I learned a lot about photography from him. I am by no means a professional photographer, but I definitely enjoy photography as a hobby. People often ask me how I always take such good pictures, even with just my cell phone camera. Today I thought it would be fun to share a few very simple tips that I practice whenever I take pictures. These tips have nothing to do with camera settings or anything like that, they are just basic things that I think about when I am taking pictures. I truly believe that you don't need a fancy camera to take quality pictures, you just need to put a little thought and creativity into it before you snap away!

1. Notice your background. Have you ever seen a really great photo of something and then you look at the background and think "Oh my goodness these people are slobs"? The background can take focus away from what you are trying to emphasize in your photograph. Try to be conscious of the background and remove anything that might be an eye sore.

You can see how in the first photo, the clutter on my kitchen table took the focus away from the iced coffee. By simply removing the clutter from the table, the focus is now directly on the iced coffee and nothing else.

2. Does your subject have feet? I don't know why, but I see this a lot. I think when we take pictures of people we are so focused on getting their face in the picture that we forget about everything else, LIKE FEET! When you are taking full body shots, just be sure to include feet. It just looks silly when we leave out limbs!

3. Perspective. I take an embarrassing amount of dog pictures(Dusty is just so cute). If you look at them, you will notice that most of time I get down to Dusty's perspective. This makes such an immediate difference. Rather than taking the photo from above, getting down to your subjects level can add a more personal or natural touch. This is also great when photographing kids.

To learn more about photographing your pet, read my post Teach Your Dog To "Say Cheese".

4. Is the horizon level? This I have to admit is one of my biggest pet peeves. I hate when I see a beautiful picture and the horizon is obviously tilted. This is such an easy fix and it truly makes the picture look much more professional.
See the difference?

5. Only keep and share the good ones!  We all have those friends on Facebook, the people that like to share every single photo they took from their awesome vacation, even the bad ones(I used to be very guilty of this). It is very important to sort through your pictures before hitting upload. When I am choosing what pictures to keep, I like to ask myself. Would I frame this picture? It kind of puts into perspective whether or not it is a keeper.

Do you have any tips for me? Photography is such a creative hobby, I am always eager to hear what others have to share!

xoxo

Emily 

Credits|| Photography: Emily Verdonk