3 Things to Improve Your Photos!

Three things to Improve Your Photos

I believe in sharing the joy of photography with others. So here are three ideas to help ensure your pictures of friends and family are works of art. It doesn’t matter if you’re using a digital camera or your smartphone. These tips will help you improve your family photos and hopefully, nail the perfect shot.

Improve Your Photos with Good Lighting

Good lighting is the most important element of an outstanding photo. There are two kinds of lighting, natural (the sun), and artificial lighting (camera flash or Indoor lights). A good professional photographer will usually combine both to create the ultimate photograph.

Indoor Photos: During the day, shoot near a window or open door if possible. If not, use the flash on your camera, phone, or desk lamp to light up the faces of your friends and family.  Make sure your subject is facing the light source

 Outdoor Photos: It’s best to shoot in the shade or close to sunset when the lighting is soft. Again make sure your subject is facing the light source.

Catch Lights: Whether you’re photographing a friend for fun or for their business headshot, there should be catch lights visible in the person’s eyes.  These are tiny white highlights created from your light source and add life to your subject. Works for pets too!

Improve Your Photos with a good Background choice

The next most important factor to improve your photos is your background choice. Whenever I am photographing a business portrait in downtown Tampa or in an executive’s office, I first try to find the most interesting elements to include. Most people’s first instinct is the stand right next to the background. I’ve even seen professional photographers make this mistake. Try to move at least 12 to 15 away from your background. The further away you move, the more of the background you can include.

Bokeh (Bo-ka) is a term used by professional photographers that describe the effect of a soft, out-of-focus background. The desired Bokeh effect can be achieved either by a very wide aperture setting (F- 3.5 or 2.8) or moving 15 feet or more away from the background. The Apple iPhones have an effect called “portraiture” which artificially creates this desired effect.

Improve Your Photos with good Wardrobe choices

Now for the third key factor in improving your photos…

The correct outfit can slenderize your subject!  Darker, solid colors with long sleeves will do the trick. Long sleeves in the summertime, in Florida? YES!  Long sleeves are a lot more flattering and have a slenderizing effect.  The final results will far outweigh the minor inconvenience of the long sleeves.

Darker colors contract.  They also disguise any wrinkles in your outfit. On the other hand, light colors and busy patterns expand, making people look larger. Tips I recommend to my headshot clients: https://thegallerystudios.com/headshot-wardrobe-tips/

Get out there and practice

So, there you have it – three ideas to improve the quality of your own pictures. I use these for my executive portraits and event photography.

I hope these tips come in handy the next time you would like to capture a scene or a person using a camera or your phone. Let me know how it goes!