Take Better Everyday Photos of Your Favorite Moments

Everyone has a camera. Whether it's in your cell phone, or a small point and shoot camera, or a fancy digital SLR, it seems that taking pictures is easier than ever. For many people, it's natural to pull out the camera and snap a quick pic whenever anything interesting is going on, and for most people I'd wager than your kids, family, friends or pets are the primary subject of your photo skills.

Take a step back and look at your photos, however, and I'd guess that a large bulk of those pictures are not all that great. Maybe they are blurry, maybe they are filled with harsh flash and shadows, maybe they don't capture the feeling of the moment at all. Whatever the problem is, if you think of photography as more than simply snapping a picture and consider it more carefully, as the art form it actually is, then you will quickly start to get a natural skill at recording the best moments in your life in such a way that your friends and coworkers don't let out groans of protest each time you want to show off your weekend adventures.

To that end, let's take a look at some basic things to think about while you shoot.

After spending years taking photos, looking at photos, and having family members take photos professionally, it became clear that one thing that really sets apart the 'good' photos from the 'bad' is the composition. Composition, plainly put, is how the subject of your photo is arranged in the frame. Unfortunately, composition is very subjective, and there is no scientific way to say, "This photo is perfect."

"But if it's all subjective, how can I improve?" you ask. Let's take a look at some things that any photo can use to have some more interest and life.

The Rule of Thirds

How many photos have you seen, or taken yourself, where the primary subject is smack in the middle of the picture? Hundreds, no doubt. Now ask yourself, how many of those photos were amazingly good? It's often the natural tendency to want to take photos in this way. You say to yourself, "I am taking a photo of this person, therefore I will put them in the center." However, a long established rule of design known as the Rule of Thirds states that by mentally dividing your image into thirds both horizontally and vertically, and trying to align the most important elements near the intersections of these lines will create an image that is more dynamic, has more interest and tension, and generally "feels" more intriguing. Click here to learn more about the Rule of Thirds.

Zoom In

Don't be afraid of details! I can't count the number of people photos I see that shows the entire person, from head to toe, taken from approximately a mile away. When you do this, you are distancing the viewer from the subject and removing any intimate connection they might have with the person being photographed. You also lose details, lose out on subtle expressions, or miss nice textures. Consider the following two pictures. On the left is a pretty cute shot. My daughter is running around in the yard. But she's so small in the frame (though correctly using the rule of thirds) that you can't really feel what's going on. Now look at the photo on the right. Yes, you can only see a small part of her, but look how much more you can take from this photo. You can see the texture in her hair, can see the wonder on her face, and while you might not see everything that was going on during this moment, you can connect with her on a much more personal level. Click here to learn more.

To learn more about various composition techniques, please read The Big Picture - Photographic Composition Techniques.

Please continue on to page two, where you will learn more tips on how to take the best "everyday" photos.