Taking Great Pictures: More Than Just Luck

Have you looked through Facebook albums only to realize certain people always have really great pictures? The kind of pictures that make you wonder if a professional photographer took them? The first key to a great picture is to have a good subject. Beyond that, there is a host of little things you can do to have your pictures be the envy of all those in your social network.

Learning the Basics

First, find what type of pictures you will be taking. For example, many photographers who take landscape portraits feel the need to upgrade to an expensive camera. In reality, a tripod is much cheaper and will give the benefits of a consistently steady horizon line. Any decent digital camera will come with setting options that allow you to capture the nuances of a horizon portrait.

Additional alterations to adjust coloring or lighting can be done after the picture is taken and before it’s printed or posted online.

Facebook users in particular are using smartphones more often and posting those pictures online. After all, the best pictures often come on the fly; and generally, a cell phone is the first picture-taking device most readily available. For some users, there are Android apps to help you take better pictures. These apps are generally easy to install and quickly accessible for on the fly picture-taking adjustments.

Discovering the Tricks

Don’t rely too heavily on your camera’s zoom lens ability. Just because your camera can zoom in on something 500 yards away doesn’t mean you are going to get a great picture when you max out the zoom from that distance. Instead, get as close as possible to the subject to take the best quality pictures. By zooming in on a picture that’s far away, you could end up relying on your camera to do too much and sacrifice a crisp, quality picture.

Remember that practice makes perfect in terms of great picture-taking. Any photographer will tell you that taking great pictures is a numbers game. The more pictures you take, the better chance you will pull a few great ones. You can always cut the bad shots and just post the great ones.

Practice your composition skills as a photographer to get better quality pictures. Composition is the way you choose to shoot your subject or background and the angles you take in your photographs. Tripods, apps, and camera setting will all greatly help to improve your pictures, but ultimately it’s the eye of the photographer that determines a great picture.

As you practice your picture-taking, you will begin to see what viewers of your pictures are responding to and recognize the kind of pictures that will get you noticed.

About the Author: Novella Chalupa loves teaching others the ins and outs of Android apps to help you take better pictures, angles, and traditional photography!