5 Tips to Help Improve Your Photos

I’m really excited to share today’s post with you guys because if you know me, you know how much I love photography. Photography has always been such a huge part of my life. Growing up, I remember my dad having a camera in hand often, whether he was taking pictures or recording a video, a camera was almost always in the room or on vacation with us. I never noticed it much, but one day I got curious and wanted to try my hand at taking a few pictures.

We were in Sun Valley, Idaho as a family, hiking and exploring the town. While we were there, I couldn’t help but notice all of the flowers!! I asked my dad if I could use his camera to take a few photos and after that, I was hooked! I think I was around 11-12 years old at that point.

Fast forward to high school, I ended up taking every opportunity I could to shoot at an event, sports game or dance. I got involved in a lot of clubs and yearbook my junior/senior year so that I could help take pictures of all the events. I enjoyed every minute of it. Sadly, my high school didn’t offer any photography classes, so I ended up bringing my camera with me to school every day and I would practice whenever I could. No one seemed to mind, not even the teachers! I actually had a few teachers ask me to take photos for them for a few after school events. I also started getting a few friends asking me to take their senior pictures.

Then after high school, I went straight to college and signed up for every photography class that was offered. I got hooked on Darkroom during college and I spent hours upon hours in the darkroom mixing chemicals, printing photos, and dodging/burning. I also played around a lot with cyanotypes. I pretty much lived in the darkroom while I was attending college. I also got involved with Student Senate and I ended up being on the advertising team, which provided even more opportunities for shooting at events. Other than shooting events in college, I got asked to shoot my first wedding! I thought I was nervous in highschool but leading up to shooting my first wedding, I had never been so nervous in my life!

All in all, I took a lot of photos throughout high school and college and still to this day, I take every opportunity I can get to create and shoot. I now mostly just shoot weddings, engagements, and families but I still enjoy taking my camera with me on hikes and trips. I also enjoy capturing food and mundane moments in life. I think that there is so much beauty to be found in our daily lives/routines.

So, now that you have a little background on how I got involved in photography/what I like to shoot, I want to share five tips on how to take better photos. Let’s get to it!

1. Shoot during Golden Hour (Sunrise or just before Sunset)

My favorite time to shoot is just before sunset. Which is known as golden hour. It creates the most beautiful and flattering light. The light is softer and golden and I will never get over how beautiful that time of the day is. It quite literally makes people “glow”.

If you don’t know what time golden hour is, there are certain apps that can help you find out. One of my favorite and most recent app finds is the app called unscripted. It not only tells you when golden hour will be but it gives you tips, helps with posing, and organizes your shoots. My sister actually introduced it to me and I have to say, I’m hooked!

2. Invest in a good lens, preferably a prime

When I started investing in my lenses, I started noticing a huge difference in the clarity of my photos. Not only that, but I could shoot in low light situations which is huge if I have to shoot an indoor wedding. I needed a good lens that would focus quickly, have a lower f/stop (to shoot better in low lighting) and have good clarity. I have a zoom lens (70-200mm) but I much prefer my prime lenses.

Just a simple explanation of what a prime lens is, a prime lens is a fixed focal length. The fixed focal length doesn’t allow for any zooming so you have to move in order to get the focal length that you want. I prefer this as opposed to a zoom lens because it makes it so I have to move around and interact more with whomever I’m shooting. My two favorite prime lenses are the 24mm and the 35mm.

3. Use Natural Light as often as possible

I know that there are always situations that won’t allow for the option to shoot in natural light, I’ve been in plenty of them myself. But if you can help it, try and shoot in natural light. If you’re indoors, try shooting by a window. Face your subject towards the window and I guarantee that your pictures will turn out so much better. If you are shooting outside, try and shoot either in the early morning or close to sunset. If you have to shoot during the harshest time of the day 11-3, then find a shady spot and shoot your subject in the shade.

4.Shoot in Manual+RAW

I don’t like to admit it, but I used to shoot in automatic when I first started out. I guess we all have to start somewhere though, right? One day, I decided to challenge myself and only shoot in manual for three months. It changed everything for me. I could finally control all of my settings, which helped me capture how I wanted the picture to look/feel. It was such a game-changer!

Also, I normally shoot in RAW. That way if the picture happens to be low light, I can usually fix it later in photoshop. RAW does take up more space though, so make sure that you have a few larger memory cards on hand.

5. Practice, Practice, Practice

If you only leave with one tip from this post, leave with this one! I believe that practicing is SO important. I was recently looking back on photos that I took eight+ years ago and I have come so far! I still have a long way to go but one of the biggest reasons for my improvement has been because of practicing. I take my camera with me on trips, I shoot during family events and I pull my camera out while when I’m around the house, just so that I can get some practice in. 😉

I hope that you learned something new from today’s post! If you have any questions or would like me to do another post on photography, just let me know in the comments.

Thanks again for stopping by! 🙂