10 Photography Hacks You Need To Know To Take The Perfect Picture
If you are an amateur photographer who wants to get to the next level, here are our 10 photography hacks that you can use to take the perfect picture.
The Mirrored Image
So, the first of our photography hacks incorporates something we all have and use way too often: our phones. Holding the front of your phone screen up to your camera lens will actually flip the image that you’re shooting and completely mirror one side of your image onto the other, depending on where you angle your phone. This can be easily duplicated in Photoshop, but why not just try it while on your shoot location, that way you can lessen the time you have to edit.
Direct Light Hack
The second of our photography hacks is using direct light to modify your photos. This can range from direct light being cast through a texture or bouncing direct light of an object. This one is incredibly versatile as you can always create different effects. You can bounce direct light off of the most random things, for example, a sequined pillow, or shooting light directly through different objects, like doilies or colanders.
Colour Diversion
This next photography hack takes photos to the next level and it’s just as simple as holding a colourful object to the corner of your lens to change some of the tones in the actual photo. This works best if the colour of the object that you are using is repeated throughout the photo itself, like holding a leaf to the corner of your camera while shooting outdoors.
Adding Movement
Another hack for a great photo is to add movement to your shot, this can be easily done by having your model walk or just move their head or flicking their hair and not looking straight into the camera. It makes the photo a lot more exciting and interesting because it looks a lot more natural.
Shoot at Golden Hour
Shooting either during the first hour that the sun comes up or within an hour of the sun going down makes your photos more flattering and gives you a set of soft warm tones to work with. There is nothing better than those beautiful golden hour shots where everything just looks golden and warm toned.
Take Notice of your Background
Unless they are professional photographers, people tend to forget about the background. Many times, you will take a picture and then later notice something in the background that bothers you, so if you had noticed it before, while taking the pictures, you could have easily moved the object, or moved the model so that it wouldn’t bother you anymore. You can always fix this in post-production, but it’s not particularly easy and it takes time.
Shooting in Live Mode
If you are shooting your pictures with an iPhone, our suggestion is that you shoot them in Live Mode. Live Mode takes a one-second video instead of the normal picture, but then you can decide where you want your picture to sit in that one-second frame. It’s an amazing tool, because it helps you capture that really perfect moment you might lose when taking a normal photograph.
Get Close to your Subject
Having too much going on around the photograph is not always a good thing: zooming way out for every photo doesn’t make it plainly obvious to the viewer what the point or subject of the photo is. The best images are simple, very clear and easily understood by the viewer. Try getting closer to your subject, even if its just of your model’s face. This photography hack can create a great picture.
Shooting from an Interesting Perspective
Most photos are taken from eye-level where the photographer was standing at the same viewpoint we see 99% of our lives from. Finding a different viewpoint, for example, by standing somewhere really tall, like the top of a building, and taking a photo looking down or just laying on your stomach and taking a picture up to the sky can make your photo really stand out.
Symmetry
Having an image that perfectly reflects the same thing top to bottom, or right to left can make your photograph exceptional. How many times have we seen something every day then see someone take a photograph and create something completely different with that same item? So, our tip for you is to always keep an eye out for the perfect symmetry.
