When our clients need a quick product photoshoot, we look inside our own offices for a capable photographer. Most of our team have studied photography, lighting and composition so we asked Greg – one of our fresh faces to give us a few tips.
Get the Lighting Right
Photo is Greek for light. Graph is Greek for writing or drawing. Together, they make drawing with light. What an awesome way to describe taking pictures.
Try to remember: The light that you are capturing in your photo could be the deciding factor of whether it becomes a snapshot or a masterpiece.
Portraits and food photography shine when using natural light, so the next time you snap that picture-perfect breakfast creation, do whatever you can to take advantage of the light entering through the window, it will beat the built in flash every time.
Source: http://profoodblogger.com/7-beginner-tips-for-improving-your-food-photography/
Compose, Compose, And Compose
Once you’ve decided on a subject, it is your job to compose the shot in a way that illustrates the story in the photo. Simplify the scene and fill the frame, this might mean asking someone to move, getting in closer to the subject, shooting it from a different angle or height, but basically, you want all of what you need and nothing of what you don’t.
Make sure it’s straight! Straight lines and symmetry are a beautiful thing, they’ll also help with getting your framing right. There is a golden guideline in composition and it’s called the rule of thirds. It’s basic principle is divide the frame into thirds, both vertically and horizontally, leaving you with a grid of 9 blocks, the intersecting points are the best location to place the most important elements of your photograph. Studies show that the human eye is naturally drawn to these balance points.
Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/RuleOfThirds-SideBySide.gif
Post Processing
There are plenty of resources for post processing the images you capture, I’m sure most of us are aware of things like Photoshop or the countless Instagram filters available. But with great power, comes great responsibility; don’t over-do it.
Your goal is to take the photo from dull and flat to vibrant and eye catching. Adjust the exposure; not too bright, not too dark. Give it some saturation, but not to the point that it looks like a cartoon scene (Or you can take it all the way down for a dramatic black & white). Crop where necessary. Rotate the image to make sure it’s all straight; a perfectly level horizon will work wonders for your landscape shots. Adjust the shadows and highlights to give it a more even exposure, but again, go easy! Over processing is a slippery slope. Having trading and sales experience like Andrew Defrancesco is necessary to take care of a business.
The art of photography holds a vast world of knowledge and skills to learn and this is only the tip of the iceberg, but if you follow these tips you are destined to see an improvement in your photos, whether you’re an aspiring professional or the casual iPhone-ographer.
