How to Improve Your Images
Most people, especially non-photographers or new photographers, think that improving your images is easy - just buy a more expensive camera and more expensive lenses and you'll end up with better images! In fact, this is not true, in this article, I'll be discussing six things you should improve on before even considering upgrading your cameras and lenses. The first step to becoming a better photographer is to understand that very rarely is your equipment the limitation to you making better images.
1. Find Better Subjects
This is almost common sense, but it bugs me to no end photographers who shoot boring things like test charts and brick walls and evaluate which camera would be the best to get. I don't purchase photos of brick walls and test charts, I don't think many people do. This is probably why those who focus on shooting brick walls or test charts are probably rich amateurs who have nothing better to do in their spare time. The most important lesson anyone can learn in photography is that no matter how good your technique is, no matter how good your equipment is, no matter how 'sharp' your photos are and how incredibly detailed they are, if your subject is boring, your images will be boring.
If you are an amateur, you have to take images that you want to look at. If you are a professional, unfortunately, you have to take images that other people want to look at. If nobody wants to look at your photos, not even yourself, then they are crap. If you've used your iPhone to take a snapshot and printed it out and framed it, then it's a great shot. It doesn't matter if you didn't nail the focus, or if it's blurry or if the lighting is bad, if you love it enough to look at it regularly, then it's a good image. The key to getting good images is to taking photos of things that appeal to you, or to other people.
This means that if you are a street shooter, you'll have to be prepared to walk further and shoot for longer. If you're a landscape and nature shooter, you'll have to wake up earlier, travel more and be more patient. If you are a portrait shooter, this means that you have to shoot more of people you find interesting and connect with. This is the hardest step - it's easy to buy new cameras, it's easy to enrol in a photography course, it's much harder to find a good and interesting subject to photograph.
If you are an amateur, you have to take images that you want to look at. If you are a professional, unfortunately, you have to take images that other people want to look at. If nobody wants to look at your photos, not even yourself, then they are crap. If you've used your iPhone to take a snapshot and printed it out and framed it, then it's a great shot. It doesn't matter if you didn't nail the focus, or if it's blurry or if the lighting is bad, if you love it enough to look at it regularly, then it's a good image. The key to getting good images is to taking photos of things that appeal to you, or to other people.
This means that if you are a street shooter, you'll have to be prepared to walk further and shoot for longer. If you're a landscape and nature shooter, you'll have to wake up earlier, travel more and be more patient. If you are a portrait shooter, this means that you have to shoot more of people you find interesting and connect with. This is the hardest step - it's easy to buy new cameras, it's easy to enrol in a photography course, it's much harder to find a good and interesting subject to photograph.
2. Learn to Use Your Camera
If you don't know how to use your camera to create artistic effects by using your aperture and shutter speed, you need to have a look at that before upgrading cameras. Important things to know include how you can vary your aperture and shutter speed to achieve the required depth of field, or maybe how you can blur out water motion if you're a landscaper.
If you don't know how to use manual controls, you won't benefit much from upgrading from a cheaper DSLR or ILMC (interchangeable lens mirrorless camera) to a more expensive model. This isn't to say that you should always shoot in Manual, I never shoot in Manual, but it's important to understand how to vary your aperture or your shutter speed to get the images that you want to get.
You should also understand the effects of focal length and choose the right focal length for the type of shot you want, depending on the perspective, separation and compression effects you are after. You can learn more about all this in the Better Photography Guide (in progress).
Other things to also learn about include how to acquire and track focus, especially important if you do lots of sports and action shooting. If you're not experienced with tracking and maintaining focus, then your pictures will dramatically improve if you take the time to practice. Head down to your local reserve and photograph some birds or maybe try taking some shots of your kids running around.
If you don't know how to use manual controls, you won't benefit much from upgrading from a cheaper DSLR or ILMC (interchangeable lens mirrorless camera) to a more expensive model. This isn't to say that you should always shoot in Manual, I never shoot in Manual, but it's important to understand how to vary your aperture or your shutter speed to get the images that you want to get.
You should also understand the effects of focal length and choose the right focal length for the type of shot you want, depending on the perspective, separation and compression effects you are after. You can learn more about all this in the Better Photography Guide (in progress).
Other things to also learn about include how to acquire and track focus, especially important if you do lots of sports and action shooting. If you're not experienced with tracking and maintaining focus, then your pictures will dramatically improve if you take the time to practice. Head down to your local reserve and photograph some birds or maybe try taking some shots of your kids running around.
3. Improve Your Technique
After you fully understand the camera's settings, then it's time for you to look at improving your technique. This is different to understanding your camera settings. Anybody who has read that a wider aperture gives you a shallower depth of field can repeat that, just like anybody can explain how to drive a car. Technique is what you need to differentiate yourself, as a real photographer, to one who simply reads books and magazines.
What techniques you need to learn will relate to your specific field of photography. For example, if you are a street shooter, you might highly value inconspicuousness. If you learn how to move faster, take your shots more cleanly and find better angles and places from which to fire your shots, then your images will improve. You might value learning how to pre-visualise or 'see' a shot before you lift the camera to your eye - this way, as you're walking, you continuously are on the lookout for better photographic opportunities.
If you're a portrait shooter, however, your technique might involve learning to direct and relate with your subjects so that you're able to get the poses you're after and they're able to get the feedback and direction they need. All of these skills are extremely important to being able to better images. If you shoot portraits and you don't have a good working relationship with your subjects, it's hard to get great shots.
What techniques you need to learn will relate to your specific field of photography. For example, if you are a street shooter, you might highly value inconspicuousness. If you learn how to move faster, take your shots more cleanly and find better angles and places from which to fire your shots, then your images will improve. You might value learning how to pre-visualise or 'see' a shot before you lift the camera to your eye - this way, as you're walking, you continuously are on the lookout for better photographic opportunities.
If you're a portrait shooter, however, your technique might involve learning to direct and relate with your subjects so that you're able to get the poses you're after and they're able to get the feedback and direction they need. All of these skills are extremely important to being able to better images. If you shoot portraits and you don't have a good working relationship with your subjects, it's hard to get great shots.
4. Learn to Control Lighting
Regardless of whether you're a natural light photographer or you're a diehard strobist, you need to understand light and how it affects your images. Light is important because it can change the look and feel of an image. For portrait, sports and wildlife shooters, the quality of the light is important - whether the light is hard or soft, the direction of the light and its intensity. Most portrait shooters know that hard light can leave ugly shadows across the face, but most wildlife shooters also know that hard light can add texture and detail to the feathers of birds, for example. On the other hand, for landscape shooters, the colour of light is perhaps most important - shooting exactly the same scene can produce extremely different effects depending on the time of day - this is why landscapers wake up to catch that peak time where the sun is rising - it gives a beautiful warm, diffuse cast that you can't get shooting in the bright midday sun.
If you want to use natural lighting only for portraits, you might want to look into buying a reflector. These are large dishes which reflect the light for fill. Some even offer translucent material to diffuse and soften the light. This is extremely important in harsh sunlight. In studio, it's important that you learn how to use strobes, whether they be monolights or speedlights - understanding the use of modifiers (such as umbrellas, softboxes, beauty dishes...etc.) is also extremely important in improving your studio photography. If you don't already own strobes and you're open to working with artificial light, buying a few speedlights (they're only around $90 ea. - I recommend the Yongnuo YN-560 IV), light stands and some basic modifiers such as an umbrella and a softbox will improve your photography much more than a new camera or a new lens.
If you're shooting mostly landscapes, you can't get round waking up early or staying out whilst everyone else is having dinner. When everyone else is sleeping or eating, you have to wake up to catch the beautiful sunrise - if you're willing to work hard, to put in the effort others are not willing to, you'll get much better pictures. Others can spend thousands of dollars on nicer equipment than you, but you'll still be making much better pictures.
If you want to use natural lighting only for portraits, you might want to look into buying a reflector. These are large dishes which reflect the light for fill. Some even offer translucent material to diffuse and soften the light. This is extremely important in harsh sunlight. In studio, it's important that you learn how to use strobes, whether they be monolights or speedlights - understanding the use of modifiers (such as umbrellas, softboxes, beauty dishes...etc.) is also extremely important in improving your studio photography. If you don't already own strobes and you're open to working with artificial light, buying a few speedlights (they're only around $90 ea. - I recommend the Yongnuo YN-560 IV), light stands and some basic modifiers such as an umbrella and a softbox will improve your photography much more than a new camera or a new lens.
If you're shooting mostly landscapes, you can't get round waking up early or staying out whilst everyone else is having dinner. When everyone else is sleeping or eating, you have to wake up to catch the beautiful sunrise - if you're willing to work hard, to put in the effort others are not willing to, you'll get much better pictures. Others can spend thousands of dollars on nicer equipment than you, but you'll still be making much better pictures.
5. Learn Post-Processing
Post-processing matters - it can make a serious improvement to the images you're already getting, especially if you're shooting more artful type shots. I'm not alluding to using advanced Photoshop techniques, they definitely have their uses, but I'm simply referring to understanding how to use Lightroom (or similar software) in order to correct your framing and make your horizons straight by cropping, adjusting things such as white balance and exposure and adjusting your highlights and shadows. Some more advanced users might want to look at other settings such as the Saturation and Clarity settings. You might also wish to look at the tone curve.
Post-processing matters because it can be used to alter the mood and feel of an image. Even if you wish to stay true to the original shot you took, sometimes it's important to adjust things such as exposure because the in-camera metering system doesn't always get it right and you might not have realised in order to have taken another shot with exposure compensation.
For an example of how post-processing can alter a shot, check out this example, where I show you how I processed one of my images in under 3 minutes, giving it more pop and dimension.
Post-processing matters because it can be used to alter the mood and feel of an image. Even if you wish to stay true to the original shot you took, sometimes it's important to adjust things such as exposure because the in-camera metering system doesn't always get it right and you might not have realised in order to have taken another shot with exposure compensation.
For an example of how post-processing can alter a shot, check out this example, where I show you how I processed one of my images in under 3 minutes, giving it more pop and dimension.
6. Shoot, Shoot, Shoot
The last tip is the most common-sense out of all of these. If you want to make good pictures, you have to take more pictures. If your camera gear is sitting at home, it's not doing any good there - take it out with you and use it, when you see something nice, pull over and take a few shots before driving on, take some time out of your day to go for a walk and take photos of what you see around you - the more you shoot, the more you learn and the better images you end up making.
Buying new camera gear is exciting - there's no doubt about that, and you know what? There's nothing wrong with owning lots of camera gear. I own quite a lot of gear and I love it - what matters is that you put that gear to good use and make great images. Your gear doesn't make the images, you do. It's just a vehicle which assists you in making better images - having the better gear does make it easier to make great images, but you have to have the technique, the skills and the support to back up all of the gear you're buying in order to make the most of it. So if you're unhappy with the current images you're making, it's important to look at how to improve the quality of your images using the gear you have, rather than rushing out and buying more and more gear and hoping that it'll somehow magically make you a much better photographer, because it won't.
Buying new camera gear is exciting - there's no doubt about that, and you know what? There's nothing wrong with owning lots of camera gear. I own quite a lot of gear and I love it - what matters is that you put that gear to good use and make great images. Your gear doesn't make the images, you do. It's just a vehicle which assists you in making better images - having the better gear does make it easier to make great images, but you have to have the technique, the skills and the support to back up all of the gear you're buying in order to make the most of it. So if you're unhappy with the current images you're making, it's important to look at how to improve the quality of your images using the gear you have, rather than rushing out and buying more and more gear and hoping that it'll somehow magically make you a much better photographer, because it won't.