Oddbean new post about login | logout YouTube’d some photography tips to level up my photos with the phone. Here is what I learned (with some of what I knew already) 1. Underexpose images. Blown out photos are harder to correct. 2. Simplicity is best - remove distractions from the frame and focus on the subject 3. Use negative space - example: more sky in photo as opposed to equal ground / sky 4. Don’t take all photos at eye level. Try different levels (example: bring camera closer to a long straight road) 5. Use rule of thirds (don’t just position everything in the center (align to grid intersections) you can enable this in camera settings 6. (This one is from me) think about where you’ll share the image. For example, Damus does edge to edge vertical well on mobile so if you are going to share on a mobile client - take vertical photos. 7. Zoom in with telephoto lens on patterns. 8. (From me) take many photos instead of just one. Better chance of finding the right moment. 9. Edit in Lightroom to play with shadows, white balance and highlights. 10. Don’t face at the light source (eg. selfie in front of a window - turn around to let the window light hit your face) If you’re a photographer; let me know if I messed anything up or missed some of your favorite tips!
These are really good. I like Number 3, the eye is more likely to search for the subject in the image. This works well for minimalist photos. iOS native photo editing is good as well.
As my boss says. Lighting, Focus, and backgrounds. After that just take 100 photos and worst case stack the focus and fix anything in your photo editor. Honestly most the work comes from taking 100's of shots and then finding the best to edit and clean up.
Agree, the more the better, especially if you compose all of them well! But even if you don’t, just sheer luck may do it.
Yah product photography is alot easier than real life or in action photography. Once you know what works usually can re create amazing and consistent images. Also if use photoshop or lightroom you can just save preset edits to save alot of time.
Pick good locations, and time of day. Time of day will dictate the lighting. Different times and weathers will provide very different looks. Think of light as the paint brush painting shadows. Keep the background as unobtrusive as possible. Balanced, as to not mess with the subject. Consider the color palets. If you have control over clothing or setting think of color contrast and tones derived from single colors. In post, pick your dominant colors, reduce the rest. Feel the pictures, take loads of them. Once the technical decisions made, work with feel as much as possible.
Oh haven’t considered time of day or weather but yeah - makes such a difference!
Massive! Chivo is a master at that (Lubezki). That’s why the Revenant looks so good.
.. pretty good list. Also: - Watch the edges of the picture and avoid having distractions peek into the frame. - Soft morning / evening light is usually the most pleasing. Use hard mid-day sunlight if you want stark contrasts. To learn: Don't try to follow all those rules at once. Pick one or two "rules" and force yourself to follow them strictly. Then evaluate why you like certain images afterwards.
my biggest advice is to remember that photography is a two part process. taking the photo and editing the photo. certain things can be done better or easier in one part compared to the other (ex. getting model to pose correctly is easier in the shoot than trying to edit on post) there are lots of digital tools out there today that blur the lines between the two. your list is a great start. for the first one, I'd say to neither under or over expose. the point is to be able to capture details at all light levels. that will give you the most flexibility when editing. another one I don't think you mentioned is to shoot in RAW when you can. it gives you a lot more control in editing than compressed file types.
1. Try to get the best exposure from the beginning, don't rely on post-processing 2. Concentrate more on a cleaner background than on the subject 3. Always use the rule of thirds 4. Use a large aperture when you want to blur the background 5. Telephoto lenses provide much better bokeh 6. Scattered clouds make for the best skies in landscape photos 7. Take multiple photos in burst mode to minimize handshake 8. The faster the shutter, the less of a chance for a blurry photo. This is, of course, is at the expense of enough light entering the lens 9. In Photoshop, the menu items "Crop", "Levels" and "Brightness/Contrast" should be the first things to be used in any photo edit, and in that order 10. Take your photos as RAW (if your device supports it) and then convert it to JPG in post-processing. RAW captures light much better than JPG and hence provides you with much more flexibility in editing.
Interesting! Thank you 🙏 I always leave crop for last. Any reason you do it first?
Yes, the editing app is using the dimensions of the whole photo to do its multiple calculations of highlights, midtones and shadows along with their averages. Cropping the photo AFTER these are done means that the calculations have to be re-done because the data in the photo has changed. So crop first so the editing software can do its work on a non-changing photo dimensions.
Love this! I already do some of those. I’m a purest though I never edit my photos except maybe a crop here or there. For the most part I love capturing the moment as it is 😍 I’m old school used to have a camera with 110 film growing up. 😂