Monday, November 10, 2008

10 things that will make you take better photographs

By David Peters

1. Watch films. Hard work I know. Films have an infinite amounts of ideas for inspiration with different concepts for lighting and composition. With 30 images per second, you'll have some great ideas in no time.

2. Enter photography contests online. Contests often give you topics or themes which can give you inspiration when you don't know what to shoot.

3. Plan a trip to your local botanical garden. Plants are great for experimenting with light and tone. If you can't find a botanical garden, go to a garden shop and snap away. There are some really beautiful flowers to take photos of.

4. Look at things through the eyes of creativity. Pick anything and shoot it just to see what it looks like: things around your house, in the refrigerator, etc. The subject doesn't really matter all that much, what matters is how you shoot it. Shoot, shoot and still shoot even more. Digital is cheap.

5. Learn about art history. Visit art exhibitions featuring photography and discover how different people have portrayed the world. Reading about photography will put your work in context.

6. Watch movies. Movies can be extremely innovative in experimenting with lighting and concepts. So learn from them. After all, movies are just lots of photographs shown in quick succession.

7. Surf the internet. There are tons of images on the web to give you inspiration. You can use Stumbleupon to let the internet find images for you. Check out Flickr too for some great concepts. The World Wide Web is your oyster!

8. Enter online contests. It's great inspiration to find interesting stuff to photograph. You have a topic, and it can make it easier to find interesting stuff to shoot. Try Contests at shotaddict.com.

9. Shoot in different conditions. Shoot at different times of day for different lighting effects and atmosphere. Shoot in different weather for subtle changes of tone.

10. Shoot at different times of day to achieve different types of atmosphere. Experiment with dusk, noon, night and see what fits with your subject matter best. - 16463

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