Photo tips

Years ago Eric Kim wrote his 100 photo tips with his last being: ‘write your own list’. So here is my list of 50 photo tips (unlike him, I ran out at 50):

1. Not everyone will love all your photos.
2. Always shoot in RAW
3. Always shoot in manual. Except when you can’t.
4. Don’t be afraid to bump up your ISO. Modern digital cameras are amazing.
5. Prime lenses will help you learn to become a better photographer
6. 35mm (on a full frame camera) is the ultimate walk around lens
7. An 85mm lens is the ultimate portrait lens
8. An 85mm lens is an amazing street lens for the less confident shooter
9. Wide lenses are ‘easier’ to start with for street photography than zoom lenses
10. Using ‘crop’ mode on a full frame gets an extra lens length for a loss in quality. 35mm = 52mm, 85mm = 128mm. Nice.
11. Thinktank’s grippy neck-straps are amazing when paired with peak design anchors and anchor links.
12. Only show your best photos
13. Neck straps have their purpose, hand straps are essential.
14. Use the histogram feature of your camera
15. Street photography sharpens your skills
16. A great photo makes real life look just slightly better than it looks through your eyes
17. Filters on your photos are ok. In fact they can help make a photo great.
18. UV filters are a must. Saves the glass on your lens.
19. Don’t explain your photos. You can title them.
20. Be happy to take 100 photos to get 1 good one.
21. Change the angle you take pictures from: crouch, find an elevated position etc.
22. Candid beats posed pictures
23. Use (and if necessary abuse) your camera equipment. Don’t wrap it in cotton wool.
24. There is no perfect equipment. Just take pictures with whatever you have.
25. Don’t take your ‘big camera’ to parties or other places you it would make you look like a berk
26. Taking pictures of strangers is exhilarating
27. Make photographs, don’t take photographs
28. Travel and photography go together brilliantly
29. Try walking part of your commute to/from work but with a camera in your hand
30. Countryside landscape shots get boring quickly, architectural or city landscapes don’t
31. Prime lenses rule
32. Keep as many digital copies of your photos as possible. Three is good!
33. Your phone camera is an amazing camera. Use it more.
34. Black gaffer tape is your friend. Easy to hide your camera/lens logos - especially when travelling.
35. Underexposed generally beats over-exposed.
36. Grain is good.
37. Straight pictures are great.
38. Noisy photos beat blurry photos
39. No level of amazing equipment will make up for practice, skill and luck!
40. Natural light is so much better than studio lighting.
41. Better lenses don’t make for better pictures.
42. Have confidence when you are interacting with photo subjects
43. Don’t be afraid to explain the exact pose you want when shooting a portrait
44. Find your own style
45. Keep taking photos
46. Zoom lenses are versatile but make you lazy compared to prime lenses
47. So your lens can manage f/1. That doesn’t mean you have to shoot wide open all the time.
48. Spend more time shooting and less time organising your photos
49. Make sure you have a good photo organising workflow or you won’t enjoy your processing your photos.
50. Find a way to look at your best photos regularly: photo-books, digital album on your TV, share libraries on your phone, websites etc.
51. Be part of an online forum or social platoform that cares about the photography. fotoapp.co works for me and reminds it’s users that a photographer is any person that takes photos.
52. Critique your own and others’ photos and be kind when doing so
53. Get hold of some photo-books by famous photographers
54. Don’t spend more time with your photo-books than taking photos!
55. Thanks to phones, everyone is a photographer so expect amaxing photos everywhere you look
56. Write and/or update your own list