Whether you are doing photography since many years or are an upcoming photographer with much more to learn still in photography, there are several tips and tricks you can incorporate in your workflow to make your job easy and pleasurable, maybe in terms of capturing a better image, making the most of your gear or understanding your client’s needs. Professional photographer at Samantha Elliston Photography shares here tips for aspiring as well as pro photographers that can make their professional life easy.
1. Don’t Get Daunted by Your Camera Screen
Every professional photographer (and even a non-photographer) is eager to check the result of her/his shot instantly on her/his camera screen; however, the results can easily confuse you. Especially when you are doing outdoor photography, the camera screen may not be representing all the tonal details of the outdoor lighting conditions, particularly of the shadows. Surrounding lights or reflections on the screen or darkness can form the sensation of wrong exposure. In such a case, the photographer is deceived by the misrepresentation and tries to adjust the controls to make the image lighter and thereby exposes the image unnecessarily.
This can be avoided by using a photometer by setting it at the spot-metering mode at the lighter side of the image. In case of absence of spot-metering mode, don’t follow the results of camera’s screen, but try to underexpose by 2/3.
2. Change Settings of Your Camera
You can try changing the factory settings of your camera before starting to shoot. Set the sharpness, contrast, tonal adjustments and saturation of your camera. It’s same as the traditional photographers did when they wanted a particular type of film, like a grainy film, richer colors or more contrast. Each scenario needs its own set of saturation, contrast etc. Practicing it can open up numerous creative possibilities.
3. Enabling Highlights
If you want every possible detail in your images, the exposure needs to be as bright as it can without blowing highlights. In that case, the flashing highlight feature is more useful than histogram to attain maximum number of details in the shots.
4. Use a Variety of Compositions
Using a variety of compositions is another advice from the pro. You should not focus on the subject or at the center of the photo. Before shooting, think for a moment, observe the edges of the rectangle of the image and move your camera. Maybe you can change the distance to incorporate those details that can balance your composition. In case of a shallow field depth, try shooting with the nearby unfocused elements and not merely with those in the background.
Samantha Elliston Photography specializes in family portraits and children and newborn photography. Visit their website to learn more about professional photography and also watching a lot of awesome images, some of which you can see in this article too.