H

How to Shoot Great Photos

These days, storytelling often relies heavily on the visual elements, like photos that help showcase the person, event, or group you’re talking about. But getting the right photos can be difficult.

Everything from how you hold the camera, how you set up the subject, and even how you breathe during a shoot can make or break a great photo. Here’s some of the tips and tricks I’ve learned about taking award-winning photos: 

THE RIGHT WAY TO HOLD A CAMERA

Did you know there’s a right and a wrong way to hold a camera? Believe it or not, I’ve met more than a few students, interns, and even some professional photographers who don’t know there is a right and a wrong way to hold a camera.

Now, some may say that it really comes down to personal preference, style, and maybe even unique body mechanics. I can’t argue with you there, but generally speaking, most professional photographers agree that the “proper” way to hold a camera results in a more stable shot and less muscle fatigue over time when working on a long shoot.

That being said, if you’re taking handheld photos without a tripod, here’s examples of the wrong way and the correct way to hold your camera:

Don’t Hold Your Camera Like This:

Instead, Hold Your Camera Like This

Why does it matter?

How you hold the camera matters due to basic physics. As you probably know, the strongest shape is a triangle. And when you hold your camera properly, your arms and hands form a triangle that’s perpendicular to the horizontal plane of the camera, allowing you to rest the bottom of that triangle, your elbows, on your stomach, lap, or a table, increasing your stability.

Your left hand should rest gently under the body of the camera, supporting it’s weight directly into your arm, which again is part of that triangle of support. This provides a more stable and steady platform for your camera, and it helps reduce hand shake that can cause your photos to end up blurry.

When you hold your camera by the sides, which I lovingly call “chicken winging,” you remove all the stability in your posture and hands, which can result in more camera shake and less sharpness in your photos.

Another Less-Than-Ideal Way To Hold A Camera

Sometimes people also hold the camera upside down for a portrait shot (with the shutter button on the bottom). While this position does provide support under the camera, and one of your arms can still make a triangle with your body, I don’t think this is a good way to hold the camera either. There are four main reasons why I wouldn’t recommend shooting this way:

  1. Pressing the shutter button forces movement in the base of your camera’s support. Because you have to press the shutter button, that movement, subtle as it may be, technically forces you to move parts of the same hand you are using to support the camera. By flipping it around the other way with the shutter at the top, you allow your left hand to be a stable and steady base for the camera. You left can can then scoot forward as needed to adjust the focus or zoom rings.
  2. The second reason I don’t recommend shooting portrait orientation this way is because it makes the body of the camera an obstruction for your left eye. Holding the shutter at the top allows your left eye to see around the camera, which can greatly help when taking street photography or otherwise being aware of your surroundings. It can also help you quickly glance at the whole scene before closing that eye to look through the DSLR again.
  3. Shooting with your shutter on the bottom like this makes it harder to switch back to shooting a landscape shot. The difference is subtle, but shooting this way, you have to rotate the camera all the way around and adjust your left hand to the bottom of the camera body, as well as adjust your elbows and posture, which leads me to the last reason I don’t shoot portrait orientation this way.
  4. It’s awkward. You have to tuck your right arm deeply into your stomach in order to get the base of the camera level, or you have yo lean to the side like the woman in this photo. Both of those things disrupt the triangle of support you want for your camera.

Instead, flip your camera around, hold the shutter and grip at the top, and place your left hand under the base of the camera. This provides support from a hand that doesn’t have to move at all, your left eye is free to look around as needed, the position of our left hand is already in place to support the camera if you turn it to a landscape orientation, and your elbows and posture are more straight.

That being said, sometimes you have to do what you have to do to get the shot. Personally, I have more muscle memory holding the camera in the correct ways mentioned above, but if you prefer a different method for other reasons, do what makes you comfortable.

What About Mobile Photography?

Because a mobile phone is so much lighter than a DSLR, and the buttons and lens are in different places, only some of the tips above apply to mobile phone photography. You can still use your arms to make a triangle to keep steady, but chances are you’ll have to hold the phone by the sides to make it work. I recommend a pop-socket for added grip, and of course there are plenty of phone gimbal devices to help steady any video you shoot on your phone.

THE THREE TYPES OF PHOTOGRAHPERS

In my experience, you have three basic types of photographers, with a spectrum of experiences in between:

  1. Those who don’t know how the camera works and always shoot in auto settings.
  2. Those who know how the camera works, but choose to shoot in auto for convenience.
  3. Those who think they have to shoot in manual in order to be a “real photographer”

Actually there’s a fourth type too: Those who are photography purists who think if you shoot in auto you’re somehow less of a photographer. That fourth group is full of jerks—don’t be like them. 

Here’s the thing about photography, especially for a business. HOW you got the image isn’t nearly as important as WHAT you got in the image. If the image is a powerful and moving portrait or action shot, it doesn’t matter if you shot it with automatic settings or fully manual. What matters is the creative eye you brought to the scene to capture that photo to begin with. 

That being said, being in group number one and not understanding how the camera works isn’t going to do you any favors. So, let’s take a look at the various settings on most cameras and get a better understanding of what they are.

THE 6 SETTINGS ON YOUR CAMERA YOU SHOULD KNOW

1. Focus

This one is pretty simple. Adjusting focus usually happens in two ways. You either have the lens on autofocus, or you manually turn the focus ring on the lens to adjust it. Most modern DSLRs come with a focus grid or dots/points on the screen or through the lens that you can select to be your focus point. Personally, I like to lock the focus point on the center dot, then simply point the camera directly at my subject, hold down the shutter button to set the focus, and then pan or tilt the camera to adjust the framing. It saves a lot of time rather than trying to convince the camera’s computer to use the correct focal point. 

2. Aperture

Believe it or not, almost everyone knows what an aperture looks like. The concept of an aperture has been used to create anything from robotic “eyes” in movies to simply showing a camera focusing on a subject. It’s that part of the camera that is made up of spinning metal blades and opens or closes a hole in the lens to let light in. It looks like this:

The measurement of the aperture (also known as an f-stop) is usually what throws people off though. The aperture measures the thickness of the ring that’s opening and closing, not the hole itself. 

Adjusting your aperture does two things. It lets in more light (low aperture) or less light (high aperture), which in turn affects what shutter speed you need for a good exposure. And it creates what’s called depth-of-field.

Depth-of-field is a term used to describe how much z-space (toward or away from the camera) in your photo is in focus. A narrow depth-of-field, for example, has a thin slice of z-space in focus, while a large depth-of-field allows more things to be in focus at once. A larger aperture (smaller hole) tends to lead to a larger depth-of-field, i.e. more things in focus. This is essentially the same reason why squinting your eyes can help make things less blurry. Conversely, a smaller aperture (larger hole) tends to lead to a more narrow depth-of-field. 

This photo has a low depth of field because such a small space between the frog’s note and left eye are in focus.

Other factors like distance from your subject and the zoom on the lens also affect depth-of-field, and for portraits you’re typically better off shooting with as low of an aperture as possible, always making sure the subject’s eyes are in focus. A slightly out of focus nose and ears with the eyes sharp is typically the ideal depth-of-field for a portrait, depending on your project needs. 

3. Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is another easy one, but it’s inversely related to aperture, which is where things can get confusing if you’re trying to shoot in full-manual mode. Increasing the shutter speed to a faster speed means the shutter is open for a shorter period of time, letting in less light, and making your photo darker. Decreasing the shutter speed to a lower speed leaves the shutter open longer, allowing more light into your exposure.

If your photos keep ending up blurry, it may be because the shutter speed is too slow. Try increasing your shutter speed to see if your photos are more sharp.

Quick Tip:

Most people cannot hold a camera steady enough to eliminate camera shake and the resulting blur at shutter speeds lower than 1/60th of a second. If you’re in a darker room and the shutter speed is slower than 1/60th of a second, increase your ISO, or lower your aperture to let more light into the camera, then try to increase that shutter speed to at least 1/60th of a second. If you can’t get the shutter speed faster than 1/60th, find a way to rest the camera on a steady surface to help reduce and shakiness as you take the photo.

4. Drive Mode

Drive mode simply refers to whether the camera should take a single shot each time you press the shutter button, multiple shots—often called continuous shooting, or if it should be on a timer (if available on your camera).

Personally, I prefer to shoot in continuous mode so that I can take several photos of a single moment and pick the best facial expression from each set. This allows me to also make very minor adjustments to my framing while I am shooting (if my shutter speed is high enough to handle the motion without getting blurry). And when shooting pictures of kids or people who are shy, pressing the shutter button and holding it down while you look up at the subject surprised or with a goofy grin can make them laugh, which often leads to a pretty genuine smile. Continuous shooting is also really good for events or anytime the subject may be moving a lot.

One downside to shooting in continuous mode is that shooting in RAW can get tricky. Because of the file size of RAW images, shooting in continuous mode can make your camera lag a little as it processes multiple RAW photos in a set. This can lead to you missing a shot you wanted because the camera was not ready to shoot again. For those situations where capturing the moment is key, I recommend shooting in continuous mode with just large JPG files and not RAW files.

5. ISO

A really basic explanation of ISO is that it’s essentially what used to be called “film speed” before digital cameras. Film speed refers to the sensitivity of the film material itself, and how quickly it gets exposed by light. Lower speed film like 150 is less sensitive to light, so it exposes more slowly. Higher speed film like 800 or above is more sensitive to light, so it exposes quickly. The same rules apply to a digital ISO. A lower ISO means the image sensor in the camera will be less sensitive, and a higher ISO makes it more sensitive to light.

Lower ISOs are typically recommended for portraits (especially if you are using a flash or strobes), or times when your subject isn’t moving. Because the subject isn’t moving, you don’t need as fast of a shutter speed, and having the image sensor be less sensitive isn’t going to rob you of as much light from your scene. Alternatively, if you are at an event or indoors in a low-light area—you’d be surprised how often that happens, even at a typical office space—you’ll want a faster shutter speed, which means the camera is going to need more light. You can help it out by simply increasing the ISO and making the image sensor more sensitive to the light that’s available. 

A word of caution though. The more sensitive you make the image sensor, the more grain you’ll see in your final photos. So boosting your ISO really high may not do you any favors, unless your location is really dark. Anything above 1600 ISO will likely have a significant amount of grain in the photo, especially in the dark areas of the shot. But more modern cameras have made significant advancements in this area as well, so sometimes you can get away with a higher ISO on a newer camera.

For reference, 400 ISO is pretty standard for a generic, outdoor shot. It may work indoors as well, if the subject isn’t moving much. 150 ISO is a general standard when shooting still portraits. And 800-1600 is preferred for sports or moving shots, especially if you’re indoors.

As you can probably tell, ISO, aperture, and shutter speed all share a coorelative relationship. As one increases, the others may need to decrease or vise versa in order to maintain a good exposure.

6. White Balance

White balance allows you to adjust the camera settings to display the color white as accurately as possible. If you’ve ever spent a lot of time outdoors in a pair of sunglasses that were blue or red tinted, you know what it feels like to suddenly remove them and all the colors around you look odd for a few minutes while your eyes adjust. 

White balance is doing just that. It’s adjusting the camera to make anything white in the scene as true to real white as possible.

If you shoot with manual white balance settings, you can actually use this to your favor. For example, setting your white balance manually to the color of a manilla envelope will make all your photos appear as if they were shot at or just before dusk.

It’s a neat trick, but generally speaking, I find that shooting on auto white balance is just fine. You can modify the white balance of an image in post-processing if necessary.

TO AUTO, OR NOT TO AUTO…

So now that you know how the different settings on a camera work, should you shoot in auto or manual? Should you be a Type 2 photographer who shoots with automatic settings or a Type 3 photographer who doesn’t? (Remember, never be a Type 4 photographer… no one likes them.)

The truth is it doesn’t really matter. Whatever is most comfortable for you is how you should shoot. But if you’re feeling like you have to shoot in manual mode to be a professional, give yourself a break. The automatic settings exist for a reason, to help you focus on the important part of your craft: WHAT you’re photographing. 

If you shoot the most technically manual accurate photo and it’s boring, it won’t matter. The creative and powerful photo shot on automatic mode will win every time.

But there are some times when it really is best to shoot with manual settings. Those times include:

  1. If you really want to shoot in manual mode: If you’re working on your skills, or just want to try it out, go for it. Just don’t let your enthusiasm cost you the shot you need.
  2. If you’re trying to shoot a silhouette: Generally speaking, automatic settings are awful when trying to shoot a backlit subject intentionally. Save yourself the time struggling to get the camera to understand what you want and just set the shutter speed higher than it would for automatic settings. You may need to drop your aperture in this scenario as well. 
  3. If you’re shooting with an external flash or strobes: In my experience, the auto settings on the camera typically don’t play nicely with external flashes and especially not strobe/studio flash lights. If you’re using a studio light intended for video (where the light stays on all the time and does not flash) using automatic settings would be fine.

REMEMBER TO BREATHE

This is probably my favorite photography tip that I don’t see in other tutorials very often. Did you know that how you breathe can affect the quality of your photography?

Hear me out. I forget where I heard this, but in some action movie or TV show, one of the characters is learning how to shoot a sniper rifle (I know, that got dark real quick). Anyway, the character is told to take a deep breath, breathe out slowly, and right as he’s finished breathing out, pull the trigger. The explanation being that breathing this way helps the sniper remain as steady as possible.

Clearly the movie wasn’t that good because I can’t remember what it was. But I started trying it with my photography, and it works every single time. Give it a try next time you’re shooting photos.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

So much of photography can be personal style and subjective, but timing really is key to good photography. 

I often hear or read comments from people at various nonprofits who say they struggle to get good photos of their work. While the technical details are important, nothing is more important than timing.

And good timing is more than just capturing the right moment. If you want to take good photos, you have to also invest the time into taking photos. You have to be out and about in your space, where the magic of the work is happening. You have to be present to get the prize.

“You have to be present to get the prize…”

No one takes great, award winning photos without investing the time to take hundreds or even thousands of mediocre shots. Not only does regularly investing the time in taking photos mean you’ll get more practice, it also means you have a higher chance of being present for genuine and authentic moments, the kind you want to capture and share with your supporters. 

THE BEST CAMERA

I wasn’t sure how to end this blog, so I will end with the first question I usually get from people. 

“I want to take great photos. What’s the best camera to use?” 

I cannot tell you how many times I have been asked that. And like my college photography professor always said, the answer is that the absolute best camera you can possibly use is the one you have with you. If you have an amazing and expensive camera, but it’s at home, the best camera you can use might be on your phone. Being prepared is what’s really important. Learning how lighting framing, technical details, and other things affect your photography will help you use whatever camera you have even better. 

So get out there and shoot. Take enough bad photos that all you have left to take are the great ones.

CategoriesPhotography

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *