If you’re interested in diving into photography and you’re already done with investing on a professional camera, it’s time for you to know the tips and tricks on how to shoot good photos. After the Canon Pro event last Friday, here are some tips to get you started:
Given the name of professional camera, you’ll have a wide range of selection on image quality, and what we learned is that you should always go for uncompressed RAW files to get the best results. Using RAW files will give you a wider and more vibrant color range and also allows you to easily edit the image with a post-processing software (eg. Photoshop and Lightroom). But also take note that it has a large file size so you’ll need a larger memory card.
One of things that was mentioned in the tutorial of the event – you have to invest with camera lenses. Another thing that I learned is that every lens can be used in any situation. A wide lens can be used with portraits – there’s an actual point wherein the subject will not be distorted. You can also use a long lens where the effect will look like the background is very near to the subject.
Canon professionals also taught us that to get the perfect lighting, you have to shoot in black in white. This kind of technique will guide you on the levels of light in a picture. This way, you can play with lighting to get special effects. It may be hard and confusing sometimes – but you’ll get the hang of it.
If you have a shoot with a model, you already have a lot of outputs in mind. You want your model to smile naturally? Tell stupid and silly stories about yourself. Need your model to be serious? Ask philosophical and deep questions about life, and maybe a talk about politics. So for every situation that you need, be completely straightforward and tell your model what you want.
Everyone knows that to be better in a video game, you should practice everyday. So why should taking good photographs be any different? Photography is similar to every other skill. Although there are people who excel at it just by shooting once, most people develop the skill by taking a lot of photographs. It’s easier now that we have memory cards. You can fill up the whole card with photos, delete the ones that you don’t like, then fill it up again.
