Stupid-Simple Photography Techniques

From the dawn of the photographic age, people have experienced that moment of picking up their very first camera and wondering how they can quickly improve their photography without having to attend TAFE classes or read incredibly thick books. Most people want to keep their photography casual, but also produce striking, interesting photos that deserve to be hung up on their walls on display.

The good news is, there are actually some incredibly simple photography techniques you can learn that will have a tremendous impact on the quality of your photos. In fact, most of these tips are so simple, we’ve invented the category of ‘Stupid Simple’ for them – they’re the sort of tips that seem incredibly obvious in hindsight, but are never thought of, for some reason.

Stupid Simple Tip: Put the Sun Behind You

When shooting photos outside, whether portraits of your friends and family, nature shots, or landscapes, the worst thing you can do is face the sun. Light is what makes photos. You want light to be falling on your subject, not streaming past them. So this simple photography technique is just putting your back to the sun, meaning you actually get a well-lit scene, not a silhouette, unless that’s the effect you’re seeking.

If you’re shooting a portrait, of course, you don’t want the model squinting and grimacing, so you might shift so the sun’s off to the side. Just never directly in front of you.

Stupid Simple Tip: Clean Backgrounds

Ever notice that the photos you take never seem to have any power or snap to them? Chances are it’s because your backgrounds are so cluttered and noisy you can’t actually tell what the focus of the photo is supposed to be. A simple trick: Combat this by scouting the area you’re photographing, whether indoors or out, and finding spots or angles where the background is diffuse and blank-looking, then make sure you snap all of your photos that way.

Stupid Simple Tip: Smartphone Miscellaneous

There are in fact some very simple techniques regarding your smartphone camera that almost no one seems to know about. Here are some of the simplest that will completely transform your photography:

• Put your phone in a drinking glass to get underwater shots, or low-angle photos from damp areas.
• Use your headphones’ volume control to work the shutter on most smartphones, allowing for self-portraits that don’t look like you’re strangling the camera.

See? We’ll bet you smacked yourself in the forehead when you read some of these and thought, why didn’t I think of that?

And if these tips improve your photography to the point where you want to share your photos with the world, click here and we’d be delighted to turn your photos into amazing wall art.