How do I improve on taking pictures?

Question

I use an HP R717 Photosmart Camera and I love it. I love to take pictures and I love taking pictures of mostly nature because the animals, trees and clouds don't object about having me photograph them or need to stop to dress up, comb their hair or put on make-up. I would like to take more professional looking pictures. How do I improve on my photographing?

Answer 1

You could start by getting a couple of basic beginning photography books. Study your camera manual, learn what and where the controls are and what they do. Get the book "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson and digest every word.

There are some good websites, photo.net, betterphoto.com, Kodak.com. Visit those sites and others, read the tips, hints, and study the images you find there.

Learn to look at light. Take a photo at the same place at different times of day and different weather. See how it changes. Pay attention to how the light and shadows fall.

Look at paintings and artwork to study composition. Learn the basics of composition and build from there.

As you learn and think more about your photography, you should begin to improve. If you have a local class, take it. Join a camera club. Seek a mentor.

It is true that your camera is not advanced. There will be things that you won't be able to do with it, but you can still learn the basics and practice while you save for a more advanced camera. Best wishes!

Answer 2

Hi:

I think the composition is always a good thing to research. As a painter doing landscapes, there are a few types of compositions that you might check on, and there is usually a golden spot about in the middle of a picture that the focal point or center of interest usually needs to be found in but it shouldn't be dead center or the composition will suffer. The real thing that I think helped me was to take lots of landscape photos, and then see their thumbnails - that eliminated the details so I could see the layout a lot better, and my eyes would tell me which ones seemed to be the best. Maybe that will help you at least a little.

You might be interested in the artist online community, wetcanvas. There are a lot of copyright free reference photos that you could browse to get ideas of what you like to see, and maybe that will help you as well. There are currently more than 114,000 worldwide artist members, and basic membership is completely free. You can also browse many areas there as a guest. This is really one of the best sites I know about. Hope this helps too.

Answer 3

Like so many beginners you are concentrating on the equipment. NO. You need to study PHOTOGRAPHY no cameras.

I took photography in JHS, HS and in college. We did mostly darkroom. They should have called it darkroom class instead of photography. It wasn't until later that I took an adult education class that we studied photographs and composition instead of darkroom and cameras that I started improving.

For yourself, get some books on photographs (I mean books with lots of classic pictures and no discussions on camera). Study them. Think about how they were made. Think about how you would reproduce them. Then try to emulate them. Forget about being creative for now. Tackle one subject at a time. Once you've learned how to emulate the classics, now you are good enough to make images the way you WANT to (instead of just taking snap shots).

Now that you are familiar with rule of compositions and such here's another guideline:

(a) learn all the rules
(b) break all the rules - purposefully.

It is when you know how to break rules you are being creative and CREATING new works.

Good Luck.

Answer 4

The best way to improve your photography is to practise and have your work critiqued by someone who knows what they are talking about.

Visit a local college and take your images to the art department. A skilled artist might be a good person to critique your images as well. Someone who understands composition, color harmony, lighting will be able to comment. A professional photographer wold be another person who could help. Everyone has an opinion, the key is to find the person who knows what he/she is talking about.

Answer 5

1) Try to adjust best angle and right distance from object.

2) The clearity is due to lences those should be properly adjusted and cleaned too.

3) After taking photo to your computer use one of the good software for bettor adjustments and clearance might be form "Adobe".

Answer 6

try using a picture editing program like photoshop or take a professional photography class.

Answer 7

get a digital SLR and take a photography class... otherwise your photos are going to look cheesy and amateurish.