A picture is worth a thousand words – but if it’s a bad picture, those words may not be so positive. I hate seeing a shot that would have been perfect – if it wasn’t blurry, off center, or a victim of weird lighting.

 

 

I don’t know about you, but I love the feeling of capturing a great shot. My photos have gotten better with practice, and wanted to share some tricks I’ve learned along the way.

Trick One: Pre-visualize
Instead of just blindly snapping away like the paparazzi, imagine the shot you want first. It helps to make a frame using your fingers, so you can see what composition would look best. More to the left? More angled? You’ll save time and memory space if you know what you want beforehand!

Trick Two: Move!
You can take some really great shots if you change your perspective. Get eye level with your subject, stand on an elevated surface and shoot downwards, or get low and take a picture looking up. This is what gives you the most unique shots!

Trick Three: The Rule of Thirds
This is a basic rule of photography that I learned in the 8th grade, and has stuck with me ever since. Imagine your picture is on a 3 by 3 grid. When shooting a subject, you generally want them to be in the upper left, upper right, lower left, or lower right – more specifically, where a row and column intersect at one of these corners.

Trick Four: Avoid bright light
Lighting makes all the difference with pictures. Midday lighting, which is often brighter and harsher, leads to pictures with shadows or too much contrast. Try to shoot is in the morning or early evening, when the light is softer.

Ready to shoot? “Say Cheese” and have fun!

-Shalyn Tharayil