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5 Simple Ways to Improve Your Photography and Take Better Photos

Digital photography is a huge and varied discipline, with millions of photographers worldwide meeting on services like Flickr and Picasa to share their shots, improve their work, and develop their career. Whether hobbyists or would-be professionals, these photographers share one thing in common – a burning desire to improve their photography and take cleaner, more balanced, and overall better photos.

Doing the same for yourself isn’t as difficult as you may think. Almost all digital cameras, even the inexpensive and old, are capable of taking great photos in the right hands. These five tips, tricks, and tactics for taking better pictures can help you improve your photography, build a portfolio of high quality images, and boost your visual artistic ability.

1. Understand Aperture.

Beyond focus, aperture is one of the most important factors in creating great photos. Described simply, the aperture setting of your camera will determine the focal depth (also known as “depth of field” of the shot. A shallow aperture results in a very thin range of focus, which is perfect for framing portrait photos and separating foreground from background. A deep aperture brings almost the entire frame into focus, giving you the ability to photograph large landscapes and environments without risk of blurring or poor focus.

Balancing the two is essential for good photos. Photos with a defined point of focus – photos of people, moving events, or specific objects – benefit from a shallow depth of field, while landscape photos and scenic photography is best done with a large range of focus.

2. Take More Photos.

To an extent, photography is a numbers game. Professional photographers don’t just go out to take a couple of photos and call it a day – they capture everything they can find from every possible angle. Just like design gets better with experience, photography gets better with quantity. More photos means more choice during editing, and a greater range of captures gives you more room to crop photos to your preferences, edit them for use in designs, and apply filters and effects.

3. Always have a camera ready.

For all the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs that are out there, millions of utterly amazing photos have gone unpublished. Why? Because the could-be photographers with an opportunity to take them didn’t have a camera with them.

Whether it’s your cellphone, a point-and-shoot style camera, or a bulky dSLR, always keep a camera on you. The most interesting and exciting events tend to happen at the most unexpected times, and without a camera somewhere in your bag it’s unlikely you’ll ever be able to capture them. A simple phone camera or small $100 point-and-shoot is more than enough for ensuring you’re ready to shoot wherever you are.

4. Use a camera with manual focus, zoom, and aperture controls.

That ultra-cheap digital camera is only going to last you so long. After years of taking pictures with a point-and-shoot camera, it’s very likely that you’ll outgrow your equipment, or at least hit a plateau with regards to the quality and composition of your photos. Cheap cameras give poor results, both in image size, scale, and clarity. Just like great designers reward themselves with ultra-flash working set-ups, great photographers should reward and enable themselves with better gear.

Stepping up from a point-and-shoot, the best thing to look for is a mid-level dSLR camera. They’re not particularly aesthetically pleasing or compact, but they’re virtually unbeatable when it comes to image quality and clarity. If you’re worried about having to carry a large camera with you everywhere, a digital rangefinder or 4/3 camera could be a better pick. Both offer full manual controls and a range of other photographer-friendly options.

5. Edit every photo you take.

Editing isn’t about applying tacky effects and pushing every filter you can find on top of your photos. While Photoshop may have enabled thousands of wannabe photographers to make ugly HDR shots and terrible filtered landscapes, it’s also given professional photographers the ability to vastly improve their photographs before publishing.

The first edit that any photographer should start with is the levels of their image. Adjust the levels so that exposure is relatively constant and the image is neither too light nor too dark. Then, using the sliding options in Photoshop, feel free to adjust color intensity and saturation, definition and image highlights, and the entire image’s light and gradient profile.

Other creative editing ideas can add interest and life to a picture. Most editing programs offer a range of black and white features, each slightly different from the other. Over-saturation, creative cropping, and different framing options and image sizes can all change photographs drastically. Being too liberal with effects can result in some Photoshop disasters, but a subtle touch can bring life and flair to an otherwise boring photo.