10 tips to up your photography game.

As a blogger, when I see a blog post about photography, I assume they mean blog photography. After all, photographs are one of the key parts of blogging that differentiates you from every other similar blog.

However, it would be pretty hypocritical for me to complain constantly about how bad my blog photos are and then give you tips on how to take them so that’s not what todays post is on.

I haven’t really mentioned it much before but I’m actually quite a keen photographer.

I got a new camera back in October but haven’t had as much time to play around with it as I’d like. I know there are a lot of people who’d like to take good photos for whatever reason, maybe they travel and want something to remember their trips by. Maybe they’d like to be able to capture the beauty of the countryside around them or something like that. Whatever the reason, if that’s you, I’m bringing you my top ten tips to up your photography game. I’m no photography genius but I still hope these tips help!!

And if 10 tips aren’t enough, today’s post is a collab with the lovely Jade from ‘Simply Jadey’ who is an wonderful photographer and will be setting up her own small photography business over the summer which I CAN’T WAIT for!!! Go and check out her blog because you won’t regret it! (And if you came from her blog, Hi!)

Look for something unusual– Anyone can take a photo of the Eiffel Tower but who can take a photo that shows the delicate details on it? When taking a photo, it’s always going to seem more interesting (which is a goal when taking photos) if you take it in a different way from anyone else or if your subject is different from another person’s subject. Maybe you spotted a quirky little something and take a photo of that, it is likely to be so much better than a generic photo of something everyone else is photographing.
If taking a photo of an animal, you don’t have to incluse the whole of it’s body– Something that I think shows the difference between a ameuter and more professional photographers is how they take photos. Do they include the whole of the subject so everyone knows what the photo is about or do they focus on a detail they find particularly interesting? Everyone knows what a dog looks like. If you’re taking a photo of your dog, focus on the characteristics that makes it different from every other dog you meet in the park.
Take lots of photos everywhere- As the good saying goes, Practise makes perfect! Just take photos of anything and everything to see what works and just to get yourself in the photographing spirit. No one needs to know how many attempts it took you to get that 1 amazing photo so just constantly keep snapping away. The best photograph might surprise you. It might be the one photo you jokingly took in a rush rather than any of the other 100 that you took hours perfecting the angles/ lighting etc.
Only keep the best- Your camera roll needs to be a gallery of your best work. There’s no point keeping a photo that’s out of focus or that could’ve been so much better if that man hadn’t been there. It’s not going to improve with time. Bad luck, delete it and try again. If you have 3 almost identical photos that are all equally good and you can’t decide between, choose a random one of the 3 and delete the others.
Play around with focus/settings/lighting– Modern day cameras have so many different options in terms of how the photo is taken that even a complete beginner can learn to use. Make the most of what options you have even if you have the simplest camera or just your phone you still can play around with Black and White. Try taking photos with flash and without flash because sometimes, even if you think its too dark to have the photo without flash, it just doesn’t look right with it. Same goes with zoom, I guess. Have a go at taking photos really close up. Sometimes it provides the individuality your photo needs .
Include the sky for silhouette or instant brightness. I really like photos that are set against a bright blue sky and I think it’s almost impossible to take a bad photo of a bright sunny day especially photos of buildings. Sometimes people ca become a bit over-exposed in the bright sunlight but anyway… You can take these photos as silhouettes or still include the details but I personally really like including the sky in my photos!
Play around with angles. Not every photo has to have the object straight up in the middle. Have a play around, I know I keep saying this but photography is subjective. How you like to take photos won’t be how everybody likes to take photos but that’s OK. Angles really interest me as they can show something from a completely different perspective (does that make sense or does it make me look like a weirdo??)
Take inspiration from others. Obviously as with everything in life, don’t go and straight out copy their work but if they take photos or edit them in an unusual way that you really like, have a go at taking photos in their style. I personally really want to take one of those long shutter photos of a road with all the lights blended together, you know the style I mean?? Visit a gallery or do a quick google to find some photographers and their styles to experiment with.
Try out different styles/subjects. This is pretty much exactly what I was talking about above but try out as many styles as you can. It might surprise you which style you like and actually works. It might be the one you were think ‘nahh, not the sort of thing I like, bet it’s really boring to shoot’ and then try it and actually find you really like it. Go on, test it out!
It’s meant to be fun. I can’t stress this enough. Don’t panic that you have to get perfect photos every time. If the photos are to remember an event by, just take some photos without spending the time to sit and think about what angle to take it from and so on. Don’t let the want to get a smashing photo get in the way of your enjoyment of whatever memory you’re trying to commemorate. Also, even though I wrote all these tips, they’re only tips not rules. There are no rules in photography. Do what you want, take photos of what you want and enjoy it!!

The reoccurring theme with all of my tips is generally, try stuff out and play around with it to find the photos you like. Anyone can take a photo of something but you need to find out what it takes to make it an interesting photo.

I’d love to see any photos that this helps you take and please share it if you think it helped!

If you have any tips I’ve missed here, leave them in the comments and I’ll have a play around with my photography using your tips!

xxx

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