How to Take Good Photos Without an Expensive Camera
Professional photographers generally have the best camera equipment that money can buy. But if you want to learn how to take good photos with an average or even an inexpensive camera, you need to learn some tips and techniques.
Sure, you could spend thousands on a top notch camera but you don’t necessarily have to do that in order to get photos that are worthy of framing and in some cases even worthy of photography contests. Good photographers can even take above average photos with disposable cameras!
How to Take Good Photos – Tips from Pros
Professional photographers don’t just point and snap. They have learned how to take the technical and the creative aspects of the world of professional photography and blend them for the best outcome possible.
Read on to find out how to take good photos even if your camera isn’t the best:
- Experiment. The best way to learn how to take good photos is to take lots of them.
- Eye contact. If you’re taking a portrait, make eye contact with your subject. Give them time to get ready and try to take several photos in succession so you can have your choice in case the subject blinks, for example.
- Use the flash. Your camera uses light to help it take photographs. Low light will rob you of a great snapshot.
- Crop. Don’t be afraid to crop a picture to get the best of it. If you find yourself doing a lot of cropping take this as a sign that your composition needs work. Take more time framing your subject and / or getting the right angle.
- Move in. Use your zoom and move in as well to take good photos.
- Try vertical photos as well as horizontals, particularly if you’re taking photos of something far away from you. The foreground could be a very interesting aspect of the photo.
- Don’t be afraid to direct your subjects. In learning how to take good photos you should consider telling people ‘turn sideways’, ‘smile bigger!’, ‘ get in closer!’, and so on.
- Learn how to use photo editing software (there’s even free software, like Picasa from Google). Some great photos have one small aspect that you wish you could improve upon. You can. Even if you don’t have a highly expensive camera, you could play with editing software to see if you can make a good photo even better.
When learning how to take good photos, why not experiment with some different tips. You could even consider signing up for photography classes or a workshop that could help you develop your photography skills. And don’t be afraid to shop around for a new camera if you find the same old challenges with your photos, maybe it is time to get something a little bit more advanced.
