HOW TO TAKE AWESOME PHOTOS LIKE A PRO

In another post I shared with you guys my choice for the best camera. I went with the Canon and I absolutely LOVE it. It is completely user-friendly and the resulting photos are beautiful.

This camera is small enough to carry in my satchel but smart enough to capture brilliant photos during a trip.

Now, just so you know, I am not an expert in photography. Everything that I have learned has been through trial and error.

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I’d like to share the tips that I have figured out along the way and some that I wish someone had shared with me when I started!

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR NEW PHOTOGRAPHERS 

Get to know your camera.

Read the owner’s manual FIRST. I understand that it can be tedious and boring but when you start using your camera and questions arise as they always do, this manual will help you know what to do.

Experiment with the settings.

Take the same photo over and over using different settings. This will show you what each setting is for and will give you a baseline to compare your photos to.

If you do this, remember that it has to take place with the same lighting or you won’t get a clear comparison.

Practice, practice, practice.

After reading the manual and experimenting with your camera, take it outside. Find a subject to practice on. Pets are the best! Flowers and plants are also good subjects.

This will help you to feel comfortable with settings and lighting as you progress to more complicated photography. Lots of practice will give you the experience and knowledge that you need to take really great photos.

Use a tripod.

Tripods aren’t very expensive these days…you can even find one at your favorite discount store.

The advantage of using a tripod is that it stabilizes your camera and prevents any movement at all which results in sharper, clearer, more perfect pictures.

Invest in extra lenses.

My camera came in a package with an extra lens for close-up photography, so I got two lenses for the price of one. That was one of the selling points of my camera.

The lenses that come with DSLR cameras usually have a high f-stop, so investing in a higher-quality lens with a lower f-stop is a necessary step for taking higher-quality photos.

Decide on a photo editor.

If you have a user-friendly photo editor, improving your photos is a snap. 

My personal favorite is PicMonkey. It is simple to use and always gives good results. 

I also like Canva and Adobe Lightroom. These are all good avenues, but whichever photo editor you choose should allow you to crop, sharpen, resize, touch-up and adjust your images with ease.

Back up your photos.

When I think about it, there don’t seem to be many things much more disheartening than to lose all of your photos. A computer crash, human error, a natural disaster…there are many ways that your photos can be erased, deleted or damaged.

The good news is that there is protection from all of these. You can back up your photos to the cloud, use an external hard drive to store your treasured images or join an online site that provides you with unlimited storage.

We have used Smugmug for years at a very affordable yearly price and have been extremely satisfied with their service and with their customer service.

Like most things, your photography skills will improve with practice and with trial-and-error. Don’t be intimidated by the equipment…jump right in and start experimenting!

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