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Getting a Great Shot
First of all, let me clarify that this is meant to be a quick guide with a couple of tips from my own experience to getting a good shot.
With that said, let’s get started.
The first you might want to think about is what kind of shot do you want to take, and in what branch of photography does it fall into. Are you going to be shooting at animals and nature, portraits of people, fashion-like shots…etc. It’s important to know the style of shot because that way you know what to focus on the most. I’m really not going to go over all branches of photography. I’m only going to cover portraits in this quick guide / tips.
Well, to get a good portrait, the first thing you need to do is find someone to take a photo of. Duh!
Second thing you may want to think about is the place where you want to shots at - and this may depend on the purpose of the shot. Personally I don’t think the place you take the shot at is very important, you can pretty much get great shots anywhere, but is good to have an idea where the shooting will take place.
Then, you want to try different poses until you are satisfy with the shots you got. As the photographer you have to be very meticulous about your work. Make sure that every single piece of the photo is perfect before you finish shooting. By that I mean, there might be an unwanted object coming out in your photo, or just about anything else. So, check your photos well before you call it a day (I’m assuming you are using a digital camera - which allows you to review your images as you shoot).
Alright, so let’s go over some examples so you get an idea of what I’m talking about.
Example 1: “DON’T…”
Some of the things to notice about this shot is the reflexion on the wall, the model’s pose in general, and her facial expression. The reflexion on the wall is a little nice touch that adds to the image. The model’s pose, in this case is what makes the image. A crappy pose would’ve ruined this shot. Also, the way she positioned her legs is great (it makes sort of a triangle shape), and her back is pretty much straight (I’ll show you want I’m talking about). And lastly, her facial expression gives a character to the shot. The wrong face here would’ve ruined this shot too.
By the way, this photo was taken in a bathroom (again, place really doesn’t matter).Okay, so by now you are probably thinking I just sat her there and got “the shot’ - but, no, it was much harder than that. In fact, let me take you through a couple of the bad shots I took before I got “the one.”
This isn’t a terribly bad shot, but it wasn’t what I was looking for. Basically the curve on her back ruined it for me.
I don’t know, I just think is one is bad period. Her facial expression wasn’t the best, and her back wasn’t completely straight either. Though, we do see the triangles here, which is good I guess.
That’s it, after this one I got the right one. Of course, then I went and I edited it in photoshop. In this case I thought the black and white would really go with the shot; and I love it that way. You can scroll up to take a look at the finished product again.
Example 2: Wheee!
This is one of my favorite shots. In this case the subject was again, a person (a girl), and the whole point of the shot was to get her jumping in the air.
Some of the things to point out from this shot is the fact that I wanted to give the impression she was flying. As you can see, the photo was taken from a very low angle (floor level). It was very uncomfortable for me to take this shot. I mean, I was literally laying down on the floor taking the photo backwards. In any case, shotting from a 5th floor (and last one too) of parking lot was really helpful.
Okay, the red line on the floor is where I took the shot from. It kind of gives you an idea of that I was talking about earlier. Also, I circled her foot because it came out blurry. In this case, I boosted up the ISO (to 400 I think) to get faster shutter speed, thus eliminating the blurry spot.
Well, that’s it for now. I can really go on forever giving more examples, but I think for the purpose of this guide it’s good enough.
In conclusion, always make sure you know what you are doing and how you want to do it before you do it. A good model always helps and makes your job way easier. Also, reading this is great, but the best way to get better shots is trying and trying. So go out there and shoot, and shoot some more. Your experiences will speak for themselves.
-ismael
