Tips for New Photographers

Hello everyone,

I have received an email on dbluedarts@yahoo.com asking me for few tips on photography. Well Joe, please read through this article and I hope that you will benefit from it and maybe share with us the photos you have clicked.

Being a new photographer myself, I am still in the process of understanding all the functions of my camera. I received a Nikon Coolpix P520 as a gift and it is helping me a lot specially that it has both programmed functions plus having the option of manually adjusting the settings.

I will advise you below with few tips that will help you get pretty awesome pictures which you will be very proud to show your friends:

1. Choose your first camera: you need first to list what you need. If your camera will be exposed to rain or you will use it at the beach, then you might consider a waterproof camera. If you are interested in buying lenses later on to improve the quality of your pictures, then you will need to buy a camera where you can add lenses to it because for example, mine comes with a built in lens and I cannot add to it another one. If you prefer to adjust the settings by yourself and be creative instead of choosing from predefined options, then you need to buy a DSLR.
2. Learn all your camera's potential: once you purchase your new camera, you can enter its name on Google or Youtube and you will get tutorials and reviews of your camera and how to use its functions. Some tutorials are better than others because they will actually go through the main features and show you how to navigate through it. Or, you can, on your own, fully try each and every option. This way, you will familiarize yourself with your camera so that when you want to put it in use, you would easily be able to choose which option fits your shooting environment. Whether it's a food picture, or a zoom on an ant, or trying to get the picture with back light hitting you in the face, you will be amazed by how many challenges are already solved by the options that exist in your camera.
3. Be prepared: It is very important to have your camera ready whenever you need to use it. Recharge the battery fully, also take an extra one because trust me, at first, you will click each and every scene that comes before you. And this is great because then you will be able to pick which one appeals to you better than the others. Remove the camera from its bag. I know, this might seem silly, but trust me, it happened to me, I would be very scared that I might scratch it or it might get hit by something, so I would click a picture and then put it back in the bag, and then something amazing will happen right in front of me and by the time i pull it out, I would have missed my shot. Put the strap around your wrist and keep the lens protector off of it. This way, you can easily click your picture.
4. Use the right setting for each scene: I will show you below few examples on how you can turn a simple picture into something pretty neat :)  check for example the below car picture: yes, it is a really nice car, but it was parked in a mall parking lot. So what i did is that i have chosen the selective color option in my camera and I have chosen the color red, since the car's color was obviously red. and tada!!! this picture came out and i actually like it. It focuses on what actually attracted you in the whole scene.

Check also the below example:

The first picture is a very straight forward photo of a camel. But the second one is taken from an angel which will accentuate the eye of the camel, which will add more drama to the picture without even the use of any effect.

In the below pictures, again the angle plays a role in focusing on material at hand but at the same time, I have used the "food" scene in my camera.

So you can see the difference where in the second picture you actually feel as if the club sandwich is calling out for you!!!

And the final example is also about selective color, but here not in the purpose of highlighting the object of your photo but simply to add drama to it:

So to wrap things up, what you need to be the amazing new photographer in town is to practice and to familiarize yourself with your camera's options. Click as many pictures as you can so that you would be able to pick the ones you liked later on. Choose the right angle to add drama or effect to the picture without the use of any effect. Use the light to your favor, and simply enjoy what you're doing. Because you won't believe the satisfaction you will get when you look back at your own pictures and feel as if they were taken by a professional. And who knows, maybe one day you will invite us all to your gallery and your artwork will be highly expensive that I might actually have to sell my house to get it :) 

Always aim high my friend and you will reach the stars!!!