How to Take Great Photos (and Fix Lousy Ones), Part I: Composing and Shooting Your Photos

Overview

People often ask me how I manage to get such good photos from a point-and-shoot camera, whether film or digital. While many factors come into play, here are my secrets for taking great photos, and for turning your mediocre photos into great ones.

Keep in mind that experience, knowledge, skill, persistence, and even luck all factor into coming up with great photos on a consistent basis.

These certainly aren’t the only things you need to learn to take great photos, nor are they necessarily the most important. Rather, they are the things I’ve learned to help you to take photos that look far better than the vast majority of mediocre photos out there.

This is not a beginner’s how-to for taking photos so I’m going to assume you’ve done your homework and are already familiar with operating your camera and its different modes, as well as basic photography terminology (shutter speed, f-stop, etc.). For Part II (editing/postproduction) I’m going to assume you’re familiar with the ins and outs of your photo editing software.

I’m also going to assume you’re taking photos of either groups of people (e.g. at a social function), or inanimate objects (cars, buildings, etc.). Each of these two types of subject should be approached somewhat differently, so I will cover each of them separately.

Eventually I’ll add sample “before” and “after” examples to this article. Until then you’ll have to use your imagination.

Scheduling

When taking photos at a party, you’ll want to arrive early and take photos early in the event for several reasons:

• Parties are less crowded in the beginning. Fewer people mean fewer distractions. As the party progresses the room will undoubtedly get more full, not less, so your best opportunity to get intimate shots will be at the beginning.
• Lighting is better earlier in the evening. Parties often take place in the late afternoon and early evening, and as day turns into night your available light will fade quickly.
• You want to socialize, too. Get your photos out of the way early so you’ll have time to chat during the second half of the party.
• Become a wallflower. The longer you’re there, the more accustomed people will get to you hanging around in the background. Eventually they will ignore you.
• People are freshest when they first arrive at a party. As time goes on they will tend to look more tired and haggard, which makes for less compelling photos.
• People who are eating or drinking don’t photograph well. People look really ugly when they’re biting into food or chewing, which makes it particularly difficult to get a photo in which their face isn’t distorted. Your job should be to get photos of them before they start to eat or drink.
• Tipsy people rarely make good subjects. Alcohol is a double-edged sword: it can help people relax, but it can also make them exaggerate their expressions and actions, as well as make their faces more red. While photos of people holding alcoholic beverages can look charming in a liquor ad, chances are your photos of your friends drinking will look more like they were taken at a frat party.

The lesson here? Take as many photos as possible before people start drinking, and especially before they start eating.

General Technique

In general you’ll want to take as many photos as possible and edit them later, in postproduction. I tend to do quite a bit of in-camera editing: after a few good shots of a scene I’ll quickly review them and delete the bad ones. This saves room in the camera, and also lets me know if I got a good shot of a particular scene so I can try again if I didn’t. However, by taking time to review the past few photos I also run the risk of missing the next good shot.

Whether you should review shots as you take them or do it all in postproduction will depend on how much time you have and whether you want that immediate feedback. If in doubt, don’t review or edit in-camera.

Psychology

Assuming you’re taking photos of people (as opposed to animals or inanimate objects), how you act and interact with them can make a huge difference in how they respond to you, which in turn affects how your photos turn out. (Likewise, there are different things you can do to affect how the person viewing your photos interprets them; many of those things can be adjusted in postproduction, which is covered in the second half of the article.)

Several rules to keep in mind:

• Shoot from the hip whenever possible. This doesn’t necessarily mean holding the camera literally at hip level; rather, it means holding the camera at such an angle that you can get the shot you want, without having to see through the viewfinder or LCD.

The advantage to shooting in this style is that because you’re not holding the camera in a traditional manner, the subject may not realize you’re taking their photo. Some cameras have a viewfinder or LCD that swivels, allowing you to better see it from an angle. This feature makes it easier for you to take a photo of somebody who is, say, to your right while you are facing straight ahead. Like learning to bank a shot in pool, learning to shoot from the hip when you can’t see through the viewfinder takes some practice.

• Don’t take posed pictures. When you point a camera at most people they will instinctively look at the camera and smile. Don’t take their picture. As soon as you see that they have noticed you, lower the camera and/or turn away to get them to stop looking at you. You can even turn to a slight angle so it looks like you’re getting a photo of somebody next to them, while still keeping the original person in the frame. Another trick is to pretend you just took their photo (say something like “excellent!” while moving your eyes away from the viewfinder and looking directly at the subject) and just as they’re looking away snap another shot or two.

• Avoid eye contact. Unfortunately it’s difficult to take candid shots while you’re socializing, which is why you want to avoid looking at and speaking to people while you’re taking photos.

• Always be preoccupied with your camera. The idea is to make it difficult for people to tell whether you’re adjusting the settings or actually taking a photo. Eventually they will stop trying to figure out the difference and just ignore you the whole time.

Lighting

Avoid using a flash. Not only do flashes tend to wash out your subjects and cause harsh shadows, but also they can draw unwanted attention to you. Yes, there are some instances where a flash is unavoidable or even desirable, but in general you should avoid them whenever possible.

Look for people stationed near light sources. Usually this means people standing or sitting near lamps, but occasionally you can find other sources of illumination that cast your subject in an interesting light. (Television can make for a nice lighting effect, but people who watch TV often have a listless expression that doesn’t lend itself to compelling photos, unless they happen to be watching something particularly entertaining.)

Position and Angle

The farther away you are from your subject the less distracting you will be to them but the more difficult it may be to get a steady, well-lit shot. If you get too close, lens distortion may cause them to look somewhat fatter. If in doubt, back up a bit. You can always zoom in closer if necessary. And if worse comes to worst you can always crop out extraneous stuff in postproduction (see Part II).

Place the camera low and aim upwards towards the main area of interest (usually your subject’s face) to make them seem more dramatic or imposing; place the camera high and aim downward for the opposite effect. However, aiming upward can make people appear fatter so use this technique with caution.

When photographing kids, get down to their level so you are shooting from around their chest or head level.

How you position the camera can make all the difference between an unflattering shot and a flattering one, and the difference between the two is often very subtle. By far the most common complaint that people have about photos of themselves is that they look fat. Even the skinniest of women tend to think this, and often with good reason: some photos simply aren’t flattering. Here are the reasons this tends to happen, and how you can avoid these situations:

• Head, cheeks, and nose. As I mentioned earlier, placing the camera too close to somebody’s face can result in the fisheye effect: heads, noses and cheeks appear bigger, making the person look fatter. You can avoid this by moving the camera back and zooming in when necessary. Or, simply crop the photo later. Just don’t take the photo from too far away, otherwise you won’t get high enough resolution.
• Chest. By positioning the camera at chest height, your subject’s chest will be emphasized and will look bigger. This is usually a desirable effect, but if you make it obvious it will ruin the effect. Also, the lower you place the camera the more risk you run of emphasizing their chin and making them look fat.
• Legs and butt. By positioning the camera below your subject’s waist, you will make their legs and/or butt look bigger. By positioning the camera above their waist you will minimize their legs and/or butt. This can come in handy when you’re photographing somebody who is lying down, e.g. on a bed or couch: usually you’ll want to keep the camera above their waist.

Composition

What you include in a photo and where you position the frame are probably the two most important factors in creating interesting photos.

What to Center On

Don’t center your subject’s face in the middle of the frame. While it’s true that the face is usually the center of attention, there are a number of reasons why you don’t want it to be in the center of the frame.

• Aesthetics. From a purely artistic point of view, it’s more interesting if the focal point of a photo is offset. You can find many articles in other publications describing how to arrange the scene so I won’t cover them here (e.g. look for the “rule of thirds”).
• Body language. Most photos that center on the subject’s face tend to crop out much of their body while showing uninteresting stuff above their head. In extreme cases bad photographers cut off subjects at the neck, which is about the worst type of photo you can take. The only time you want to do this is when the main subject is behind the person who just happens to be in the frame, e.g. when taking a photo of a sculpture or painting and you want to include somebody in the photo.

When photographing a person, position them in the frame so that the top of their head is just below the top of the frame, i.e. so you can see as much of their body as possible. (This doesn’t mean you have to zoom out to show their entire body; it simply means that once you’ve decided how close to zoom in you should aim the camera so that as much of the body is visible as possible, at that zoom level.)

Interesting Compositions

• Shots of individuals. Portrait-style shots of individuals usually make for compelling photos because there is a clear, single subject for the viewer to focus on.
• Shots of couples. Shots of two people together make for even more compelling photos, especially when those people are interacting and smiling. People really like to look at photos of people interacting and having fun.
• Avoid group shots. Group shots tend to show four or more people, which makes it difficult for the viewer to find a point of focus.

There are several reasons to avoid group shots:

• Facial expressions. It’s unlikely everybody will have a good expression on their face at the same time (unless they’re posing for the photo, which you shouldn’t let them do anyway).
• Group shots lack intimacy. With that many people you’ll have to pull back far enough to capture them all and in doing so you’ll lose the intimacy of a shot containing just one or two people.

(See Part II of this article for postproduction composition tips.)

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