For many people, this year is the year they are going to take their photography to the next level.
They have bought or were gifted a DSLR camera, hipster camera bags for their base and lenses, and have made it their mission to take better pictures than they ever have before.
Here are some easy, fun tips to make your photography shine even better in the new year.
Never Leave Home Without Your Camera
Every day has an opportunity for a brilliant photograph, and one of the innate abilities that separate good photographers from great ones is the ability to seize the moment and be ready at a moments notice, camera in hand, quickly able to set up and take the shot.
Like any skill, especially any creative skill, the more experience and practice you have, the better you will be and the easier it will be to react to situations and get once in a lifetime pictures.
Know How Your Gear Works
One of the less glamorous tips we have is to read the manual of your camera and all of the equipment you have, to make sure you know how all the settings work and what they are used for.
In particular, make sure you know how to take advantage of the exposure triangle (ISO, shutter speed and aperture) to take photographs that have the right level of light to illuminate your subject without having so much that the colours and features are washed out.
On this same subject, shoot in the RAW format of your camera, because for the most part, you are going to use image manipulation tools such as Photoshop to adjust the levels and make it look perfect.
Practice Manual Focus
Autofocus on cameras is an amazing feature that lowers the barrier to entry for many aspiring shutterbugs, but over-reliance on autofocus without knowing how to adjust on the fly or override your camera’s automatic settings can set you up for trouble when taking a picture of a complex scene.
In busy scenes or scenes with a lot of movement, autofocus can lead to a blurry shot if it focuses on the wrong part of the frame, so be ready to adjust.