Improving Your Digital Photo Skills

In this current time period of digital cameras, you probably think all you need to do is point and click to take great photos.  Not so fast.The honest truth is, you may have a great digital camera, but if you are clueless in what to do, you will take ugly shots.

I would love to give you some good tips to help you improve your photography skills.  These tips are coming from years of experience as a San Diego wedding photographer.These tips are about using lighting and they will be some of the best advice and keys to your success in taking great photos.

First tip in lighting.  Now if you are taking shots outdoors during the day, natural sunlight provides some of the best lighting possible.  Now you are probably thinking, “that’s easy, when you are a San Diego photographer since it is always shiny there”, when in actuality really bright sunlight can cast harsh shadows.Or it could blur the details of faces when the sun is overhead.

Overall, you are going to want to take most of the shots with the sun behind you.This stops any harsh shadows in your photo caused by the sun.But there will be those times and instances when you want different angles to get those shadows into the shots.

Now that we know what to do during the day shots, what if you have to take some night shots? 

The key technique for night photos is actually turning off your flash.Of course if it is absolutely dark with no light you wil need it, but for times when there is some lighting, use the lighting around you, but make sure the shutter speeds are slow enough to let light in.Also, stay steady when you are taking your photograph or you will cause the picture to blur.Applying these couple of techniques will make a dramatic difference for those nights shots you take. 

The final tips to using lighting for great shots is using the golden hour.Now there is a time that photographers refer to as the “golden hour” or “magic hour”, and that is during sunrise and sunset.

These times of day you wll be able to capture great shots because you will get the more warmer and inviting colors.  You will be able to capture that golden lighting you won’t catch any other time of day.

There you have it.Probably the biggest tip in taking beautiful photos is to make use of the natural lighting around you.  Knowing what techniques to use for different parts of the day, or just scheduling a photo shoots to capture those times of day will help you become an excellent photographer.