Beginner Photography Lessons

Here are three very common beginner photography mistakes. See if you are guilty of any of these!

1. Uneven horizon lines

Looking through your holiday pictures to discover they are all a little bit wonky (or a lot!). It’s easy enough to do particularly if you use zoom. When you’re zoomed in on a scene, a horizon that is uneven by just a degree or two will look significantly unbalanced in your photograph.

There are two approaches to this problem. The first is to try and prevent it. Take notice of any lines that are in your photo and see if you can line up the viewfinder of your camera against them.

If you own a DSLR you accessories such as the camera cube which is basically a spirit level that fits into the flash mount of your camera. Make sure the bubbles in the camera cube are within the boundaries and you know your picture will be straight.

The second method is to fix your photos after you take them. It will depend on which photo editing software you use. If you use iPhoto then select the photo you want to fix, click Edit and then straighten. You can then select the degree to which you want to rotate your photo and iPhoto will crop and straighten your image accordingly.

2. Centering Your Photos

Its common for beginner photographers to want to stick their subject smack bang in the middle of the picture. That’s because our camera’s tend to be set up to focus in the middle of the photo.

To achieve a more professional look move your subject off centre. Image your photograph is divided into thirds and place your subject one third from the left or the right.

So how do we overcome the fact that our camera wants to focus on whatever is in the center? It’s easy. Place your subject in the center of your picture. Press the shutter release button half way down. Without letting go of the button, move your subject to the left or right and then push the shutter release button down fully.

3. Cluttered Composition

When it comes to photography the old adage ‘less is more’ definitely applies. In the beginning you pay little attention to what is going on in the periphery of your photos. You point the camera at your subject and press the button.

Unfortunately this approach will lead to a lot of cluttered pictures. If there is too much going on in your photo the eye has no where to rest and your subject gets lost amongst the clutter.

There are a few ways to remedy this.

The first is to try another angle. Move around the subject until you can remove some clutter from the background. Of course if your subject is a person you can also get them to move to a more pleasing backdrop.

If this isn’t feasible then zoom in and fill the frame with your subject. You can either zoom in with your camera or lens or with your feet by getting closer to your subject. A tighter composition produces a dramatic improvement for most photos.

If you own a DSLR then you could try getting creative with aperture or shutter speed to blur the background.

A softly focused background diminishes the interest in this part of your photo and draws the eye towards the part of the photo that is in sharp focus.

If you have a point-and-shoot camera try using the Portrait mode to achieve a similar effect.

See how a simple picture of your dog can be improved simply by moving it off center.